Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles
by FrancoGamerxz
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto, the village Pariah and class idiot was a loud-mouthed orange-wearing orphan intent on attaining an impossible dream of being acknowledged by the village that scorned and mistreated him... Or was he? Read on as Naruto gradually reveals his true self, known only to those he trusts, and ends up shaking the foundations of the shinobi world.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and unnamed, faceless corporate people. I own only a pair of pants.**

"Don't you get it, Naruto? Don't you see the truth?"

"Stop it, Mizuki! It's forbidden!"

Umino Iruka was having a pretty shit day. And it all started earlier in the day...

 **-Same day, Shinobi academy-**

"Well students, we have just finished the written portion of the graduation exam. Please procceed to the training field and prepare for throwing practice and sparring."

The murmur of the mass of students talking animatedly while leaving the room filled the back of his mind as he started giving each of the sheets of paper in his hands a cursory view, trying to estimate how well his students did. Iruka was absentmindedly leafing through tests before reaching that of one Uzumaki Naruto.

Ah, Uzumaki Naruto. The village's number one pranking, troublemaking aspiring ninja. Iruka was very close to the boy, being one of the few people that didn't either ignore him, or outright hate him, but no matter how much he loved Naruto like a little brother, he had to admit that the boy was somewhat dim in the theoretical aspects of life.

Which is why he almost choked when Naruto's answers in the test were something you'd see a retired shinobi with years of experience putting down.

' **Which are the different disciplines used by shinobi in order to prevail in battle and complete their assignments?** '

' _The main disciplines used by shinobi in order to triumph are stealth, awareness, tactical prowess, negotiation, cunning, trickery and misdirection. When the indirect methods fail, then shinobi have to turn to and rely on the other parts of a functional skillset, nin-, gen- and taijutsu, as well as shurikenjutsu, trapping skills, poisons, and in some cases, kenjutsu. The best shinobi have the ability to properly discern the different skills to use in different situations, but the number one most important skill for a shinobi is the ability to surprise their enemy._ '

"Holy sh-..."

Iruka wanted to keep reading on, but he had to stop himself when Mizuki called out to him to start the practical portion of the exam.

Once outside, at the target range, Iruka had the students lining up to take their turns with the training targets. They were human-shaped strawmen with two bullseyes, one for the head and one of the torso, with different points given by how close to the center they were hit. They both were divided into five parts, the center white with four alternating rings of red and white. On the torso, the grades went from 1 to the outermost ring, to a 5 in the bullseye, and the head started with a 2 on the outter ring, increasing each time by 2 until the center target gave a ten. Each student had 10 throws, and they could throw at whichever target they wanted. The objective of the exercise was to have the students score at least an 11/20, with each of them having 10 tries or until they scored 20.

Most of the students averaged at about 12, picking and choosing at different rings to sum up points, with the clan heirs scoring around the 16's. Sasuke, as expected, secured the highest grade, managing a 20 in 4 throws. As the boy's fangirls (Iruka very much felt for the boy's sad future in regards to that, fangirls were creepy and the nightmare of any successful shinobi) squealed in delight at the perfect performance of their Sasuke-kun, Iruka called up the last one in the list, Naruto.

How the boy with the surname Uzumaki get lower in the list than Zantonio Zalga, Iruka would never know.

The majority of the students lost their focus at that point, seeing that 'everyone that mattered' had already thrown. Only Iruka, Mizuki and 3 other students had their attention still on him.

Sasuke was watching out the corner of his eye, but he wouldn't own up to that even under torture.

So when Naruto got a 20 in two throws by hitting the two kunai that he threw _simultaneously_ on the head's bullseye, Iruka looked up to see if the sky was falling.

' _Naruto always used to be bad at projectiles, no matter how much I tried to drill proper technique into his head! What the hell is going on, today?_ '

Naruto turned to Iruka, giving him a sheepish smile and rubbing the back of his head as he spoke "Well, that was lucky!".

Iruka just nodded silently, before gathering Mizuki and wrangling the unnatentive children who missed the previous events and placing them around the sparring platform.

A certain Uchiha Sasuke was grinding his teeth in the background.

One by one, the students went into the ring and sparred with Mizuki for a few minutes, getting a grade out of 10 from Iruka based on their performance. Once again, _after_ Zantonio Zalga, Uzumaki Naruto was called up to the circular ring.

As soon as Iruka gave the starting sign, Mizuki dashed at Naruto with high-gennin speeds, catching the blond by surprise.

Naruto was so surprised in fact, that he fell backwards onto his ass, his right foot shooting up reflexively and nailing Mizuki in the family Jewels.

Iruka and every other male in the vicinity cringed in sympathy. A nutcracker, no matter how accidental, at that speed, was bound to hurt.

Naruto seemed to finally regain his bearing, jumping to his feet before looking down at the foetal-positioned form of Mizuki.

"Hey, are you okay, Mizuki-Sensei?... Wait, I was the only one to actually down him, does this mean I get the best grade?"

Naruto's excited, gleaming look at getting the only 10/10 in the sparring practical other than Sasuke's followed him back into the Ninjutsu examination room, making him unaware of the dirty looks Mizuki shot him.

"Okay Naruto" Iruka started "Now all that's left is the Ninjutsu portion of the exam. You need to successfully perform a Kawarimi, a Henge, and three proper bunshin. you may procceed."

Naruto thought for a while, focusing on what he'd do before his eyes flashed in realization and mischief, automatically putting Iruka and Mizuki on guard.

" **Oiroke no Jutsu!** "

In a puff of smoke, a blonde, pigtailed gir with tanned skin, perfect curves and plentiful assest covered only, like her lower bits, by a cloud of smoke, blew Iruka a kiss.

 **-Hokage tower, same time-**

"Plllllllbbbhttttt!"

The third Hokage's nosebleed at the scene he watched in his crystal ball threw him straight at the wall of his office, knocking him unconscious.

 **-Back in the classroom-**

Iruka and Mizuki were stunned, but before either could say a thing, the door was broken down by a horde of girls, lead by Sakura.

"Naruto-baka! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"

Iruka started sweating, he knew that feeling. That concentration of malice coming from the group was only found in kunoichi experiencing the ' _Righteous Anger_ ' state from being in the presence of, or sensing, a perverted action.

Naruto sensuously moaned " _Sakura-chan~_ ", before blowing her a kiss, getting a partial nosebleed from the girl, which in turn turned up the righteous anger to 11. Looking down morosely, Iruka just hoped Naruto would recover from the beating of a lifetime.

The girls jumped the figure, punching, kicking, scratching, biting, and stomping away.

"That's no good."

Iruka jumped as he heard Naruto's voice from where Mizuki previously stood behind him, completely unhurt.

"Naruto! But if you're here, then who..."

Iruka's gaze turned back to the scene of the carnage, the beaten form of Mizuki laying on the ground, barely twitching. The girls left the classroom, the expenditure of the righteous anger meaning they didn't even care about target anymore.

Iruka's face slowly turned to Naruto, utterly scared at the true face of the innocent boy.

"You... You taunted them on purpose after they first came in... And you Kawarimi'd with Mizuki to get the ' **Pervet beating no jutsu** ' diverted from you!"

Naruto chuckled with the best 'oops' face he had "Well... I actually didn't try to taunt them, I was just acting out the role, you know. And the Kawarimi..." He said with a massive shiver "The back of my neck tingled, and I just knew that if I didn't pull it off, I'd be in pain. Thank god I did."

Iruka nodded appreciatively. Naruto's instincts were top-notch in the situation. Ignoring the twitching Mizuki who was taken away in a stretcher to the nurse's office, Iruka cleared his throat to get things back on track.

"Well Naruto, now you just need to perform three successful bunshin."

Naruto nodded before clasping his hands into a Ram sign, his chakra pooling around him before he called out " **Bunshin no Jutsu!** ", causing 20 illusory Narutos to fill the room.

Iruka smiled brightly, and proudly, at the grinning Naruto "Well Naruto, you just earned yourself your headband! You are now officially a shinobi!"

Naruto took the blue cloth headband with a beaming smile, tightly tying it around his forehead. He gave Iruka one of his foxy grins as he spoke "It's all thanks to you teaching me, Iruka-sensei! I'll never forget it!"

Naruto scampered off, leaving behind an honestly cheerful Iruka.

 **-Later, end of schoolday, Academy Park-**

Naruto sat contentedly under a tree, enjoying the shade and the breeze as a shinobi for the first time in his life. The silence was broken by the voice of Mizuki.

"Hey Naruto, Iruka told me that you passed, congratulations!"

Naruto beamed up at Mizuki, proudly tightening the headband around his forehead as he spoke "I did, yeah! I'm now a totally awesome shinobi!"

"Well Naruto" Mizuki said before looked around conspiratorially "There's actually another secret test for the really talented, which could promote you directly to Chunnin."

"Really!" Naruto shouted loudly, only to rub the back of his head sheepishly as Mizuki shushed him "What do I have to do, Mizuki-sensei?"

"Naruto, you have to get into the Hokage tower, undetected, get the scroll of sealing, learn a technique off of the scroll to show your potential, and meet up with me back at the forest so I can evaluate your progress."

Naruto nodded before trooping off, leaving behind a smirking Mizuki ' _Soon, demon. Soon._ '

After that, things went about as well (or as badly) as expected. Naruto broke into the tower and stole the scroll, beating the hokage in the process with his ' **Oiroke no Jutsu** ', before scampering off to the forest and opening the scroll, reading it and trying to get as many jutsu as possible. Maybe they'd promote him directly to Jounin then!

Iruka catching up to Naruto before Mizuki and then having Naruto spill the beans wasn't part of Mizuki's plan, nor was it impaling Iruka's limbs with Kunai, but hey, you have to improvise. Which lead to the current situation.

Iruka unable to move, Naruto frozen with the scroll on his hands as Mizuki talked about the village's S-rank secret.

 **-Back to the beggining-**

"W-what truth? What are you talking about, Mizuki-sensei?"

"Thirteen years ago, the village was attacked by the Kyuubi no Youko, and the fourth died to defeat it, but demons can't be killed, so his sacrifice instead made the fox reincarnate into you! That's right, you are the fox!"

Iruka looked at Naruto, watching the desperate and disbelieving look on his face, but before he could say a word, Naruto's face changed into a deadpan.

"That's it? I'm the fox? Mizuki, you had an entire day to figure out a proper lie to tell me, and you bullshit me with this?"

Mizuki's jaw dropped about as low as Iruka's, and they kept going lower as naruto kept speaking.

"I'm a Jinchuuriki, a host, not the fox you damn moron." before a massive grin broke out on his face, promising Mizuki untold amounts of pain "Well, Moron-zuki, I've been wanting to kick your ass for a long time, for trying to sabotage my education, and while the kick to the nards during sparring practice, and the fangirl beating were cathartic, the fact that you just revealed an S-rank state secret means that I have free reign on where to place you in the 'pain' scale."

Mizuki scoffed "You expect to beat me? You're just a snot-nosed brat out of the acade-"

" **DYNAMIC ENTRY!** "

Mizuki found his speech interrupted when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him in a jumpkick which hit his chest, hurting a lot and throwing him backwards limply from the shock.

\- **Elsewhere -**

Miles away from the forest, a certain bowl-cut spandex-wearing man started streaming tears in his sleep, his cries of "YOUUUUUUUUUUUUTH!" disturbing his neighbours all around.

 **\- At the forest -**

Mizuki's backwards flight trajectory was forcibly changed when Naruto appeared behind him, snapping a kick at his back which threw the chunnin upwards. He was met up with by another Naruto who took hold of the back of his neck with both hands, positioning the front on his shoulder before gravity pulled them downwards.

On the sidelines, a few other Naruto's sat behind a log acting as a table as they commentated.

"What's this!? Coming out of nowhere, Uzumaki Naruto... Watch out, watch out, watch out!..."

When Naruto landed on a treebranch, causing Mizuki's face to crash into, and his neck to almost break on his shoulder, one of the commentating Naruto's cried in excitement.

" **NKO! NKO! NKO Out of nowhere!** "

The Naruto who slammed Mizuki onto the massive branch stood up, flipping Mizuki over onto his back before a a whistling sound came from above. Suddenly, Naruto was falling...

" **PEOPLE'S ELBOW!** "

And slamming his elbow into Mizuki's gut.

Iruka winced. If Mizuki wasn't already suffering from internal damage from the first two kicks, then now he'd be shitting blood for weeks.

' _Oh wait, Mizuki is a traitor._ '

Iruka decided to spare no sympathy for the traitorous chunnin, 'Moron-zuki' as Naruto declared.

Mizuki was previously doing his best to stay conscious, but the combined might of the ' **NKO** ' and the ' **People's elbow** ' turned his goal into a pipe dream, crushed about as badly as his spleen. And one of his kidneys. And maybe even his liver.

 **\- 15 minutes later, Hokage's tower -**

"So, let me get this straight" started Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage of Konoha while pinching the bridge of his nose, just thinking about the amount of paperwork this would cause "You set yourself up as bait to draw a traitorous chunnin to the spotlight, then you proceeded to nearly liquidate said chunnin."

Naruto nodded sagely as he spoke "Yes, that's the gist of it."

Koharu, Homura and Danzo, the Village's elders, reacted to Naruto's words in different ways.

Koharu was veritably seething at the 'whelp's gall' in the way he adressed the Hokage.

Homura was amused at the boy's nonchallance in the situation.

Danzo was dreaming about Jinchuuriki-shaped weapons willing to use themselves as bait for the good of the village. ' _Holds potential. Maybe I can convince him to join Root_ '

Hiruzen sighed before speaking "I hardly think this explains everything, Naruto. Please, start over."

"Well, Mizuki was a dick. Like, a massive one. He always sabotaged my grades when I first started in the academy. Homework assignments were always missing or misplaced after he payed the specific teacher a personal visit, the practice Kunai and shuriken he gave me were always the worst, he pulled me aside with 'super special taijutsu moves' trying to screw up my taijutsu, and he never managed to hide that gleam in his eye whenever bad things happened to me, so I decided that I was going to prank his pants off."

Hiruzen felt his anger and tiredness hit him the more Naruto spoke, seeing how far the hatred for the innocent young child could be taken by someone supposed to nurture and educate. Seemingly ignorant to this, Naruto continued.

"So, I decided that the best way to prank him into the psychiatric ward was to watch him. Learn where he lived, his habits, his schedule, so I started following him around whenever I could."

Koharu interrupted at that moment in a derisive tone "You're saying that you've been following around a chunnin without being detected, ever since you were a child. A hyperaware, traitorous chunnin at that. You?"

Naruto deadpanned as he answered "Yes, me, the kid who snuck into and out of the ANBU headquartes and the clan grounds in order to prank people, the kid who painted the hokage monument in broad daylight, the kid who constantly manages to escape and hide from Chunnin, Jounin and ANBU in _a bright orange jumpsuit in broad daylight_. Yes, me."

Homura stifled a laugh at the response, while Sarutobi smiled lightly, his eyes shining with mirth at Koharu's disgruntled look "Point. Keep on with your tale please, Naruto."

Naruto looked at Hiruzen thankfully before returning to his tale "Well, I've learned his habits, schedule and tells and everything screamed traitor. Of course, seen as I'm me I couldn't just bring this suspicion to the fore as I'd be easily disimssed, and then he'd just disappear with village secrets and hurt us more, so I went along with it and decided to wait for a chance to have the man reveal himself."

"How'd you even know to do all of this?" Asked an incredulous Iruka. At that question, everybody else leaned in expecting an answer.

"Well, I've been strolling into the ANBU complex almost weekly to prank them, you don't think I'd learn a thing or two from there? I mean seriously, Field-op manuals and such just strewn around the common room tables, some of your ANBU are just right slobs!"

The four ANBU at the corners of the room sweatdropped at that, as did everyone else.

"Anyways, back to the story. I waited for an occasion, an opportunity to flush the rat, and he himself provided me one with that test bullshit. As if a chunnin could promote a freshly-graduated gennin to the same rank as himself. Moron-zuki underestimated my intelligence almost as badly as those three." He said pointing at the elders, getting surprised looks from two, and a slight narrowing of the eyes of the third "I mean seriously, so many people with no reason to hate me, who treated me neutrally, suddenly turn cold and spiteful. Almost feels like someone trying to soften me up, make me emotionally deficient so I could easily be programmed. As if someone wanted to lay some _foundations_ on me _._ "

The emphasis that he gave to the word caused Koharu and Homura's backs to stiffen, Danzo to focus his one good eye on the boy, and Hizuren to look at the three of them thunderously, the sheer rage and killing intent he released reminding everyone in the room why the man was called the god of shinobi.

Before he could act, however, Naruto continued on "Well, so I decided to use the scroll as bait, leave breadcrumbs for Iruka-sensei to witness everything, and make sure Mizuki spilled the beans in the presence of Iruka so he could be formally charged without the civillian council interfering because of the untrustworthiness of the ' _Kyuubi-brat_ ' " he said nonchalantly with air quotation marks, leaving everybody gaping.

After a few minutes of sputtering, Hiruzen recovered enough to speak again "You Knew?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the old man "The main insult most people threw at me was demon to the face, and Kyuubi-brat when they thought they were outside of the children's earshot. Plus, I kind of have a massive sealing array on my stomach which holds back a giant fucking fox. Do you think I'd be stupid enough to not notice I have a _giant fucking fox_ residing in my stomach?"

"Why did you never tell me anything, Naruto? Don't you trust me?" Sarutobi asked in a disappointed tone.

Naruto turned a blank stare on the man before saying "Same question to you, _Hokage-sama_." Hiruzen cringed at the tone and manner of address "When was I going to learn about the giant fox residing in my gut which made people detest me? When were you going to tell me the reason for their hatred, instead of simply deflecting questions or changing the subject?"

"You weren't ready, Naruto!"

"I wasn't ready for a secret about my own life which will forever stick with me, but I'm ready to join the academy that teaches me the many various ways of murdering people?" he deadpanned. "I mean sure, tell me the best ways to cause pain without killing for information extraction, teach me techniques to destroy whole batallions and villages, but leave me in the dark about something that will forever _live inside my gut_."

Hiruzen looked older and older as Naruto spoke, before he suddenly changed the subject.

"By the way, I'd like it if this was registered as a completed mission in my files. At least A-rank since I had to keep village secrets from the hands of a traitor, endangered my life as bait and had to fight a chunnin..."

Before he could say anymore, an Anbu blurred into the room, kneeling in front of the hokage before speaking "Hokage-sama, Ibiki told me to inform you with urgency of the fact that Mizuki was a spy for Orochimaru, and that there are others living as civillian and shinobi alike". And just like that, the Anbu disappeared again.

"S-rank!" Everybody turned towards Naruto "What? I kicked a chunnin's ass, protected village secrets and exposed a whole net of espionage related to the traitorous Sannin. It's totally an S-rank."

Hiruzen nodded in agreement, wanting nothing more than to just go to bed as his headaches grew further "Well, Naruto. Your file will be marked with a classified completed S-rank mission, and the payment shall be given to you tomorrow. You may leave."

Naruto nodded to the Hokage before surprising everyone in the room by disappearing in a sunshin.

' _How much more are you hiding, Uzumaki?_ ' thought Danzo as he walked away from the Hokage's office, flanked by Koharu and Homura.

Chapter one, done!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but a pair of torn boxer shorts, a shovel and a goat.**

"What the hell?"

Ino's words mirrored the thoughts of almost everybody else in the room. The cause of the exclamation was, like most times, Uzumaki Naruto.

But, unlike most days, it wasn't one of his pranks, or him acting stupid, or anything of the sort. No, what completely stumped Ino, and everybody else, was Naruto's appearance. Instead of the atrocious orange monstrocities they were used to, this Naruto was different.

A mesh t-shirt clung to his body, stretched around his toned torso and arms, a black, hooded vest over it. His legs were adorned by a pair of black Anbu pants with tape around the ankles and kunai holsters on the outer thighs, revealing the toned muscles previously hidden by the loose, orange... _things_. On his feet were a pair of black shinobi sandals, pretty standard stuff. His hair, unlike the usual gravity-defying bright-blonde spikes, were now loosely hanging from his head and reaching his shoulders on the side, the back which, when free, reached his back, was pulled into a ponytail.

Naruto was different. _Naruto was hot._

"What the hell... what?" Naruto answered the fellow blond.

"I mean, what the hell happened to you, Naruto! Why do you look like that?"

Naruto chuckled lightly "Oh, this. Well, since I've become a shinobi, I decided that wearing bright orange on the field was a bad idea, as it made me a very visible target. "

"But what about those arms, and legs, and abs, and..." Ino started babbling absentmindedly before Naruto interrupted her.

"Always had those. My previous clothes were just baggy enough to hide them."

"Whatever, Naruto-Baka! Sasuke-Kun is still cooler!" came the shrill sound from Sakura, causing all dogs to whine in a 10 mile radius.

Naruto just shrugged before turning pulling a book from inside a pocket and reading it, once again surprising everybody. Before anyone elso could comment on it, Iruka walked into the classroom, making everybody sit down.

"Well, here is everybody who managed to become genin of the village. I am very proud of you all for the progress that you displayed for al your years in the academy, and I'd like to impress now more than ever the importance of everything you've learned. From now on, you will be shinobi of this village. You will be facing new responsibilities, tackling new tasks, and the image of the academy, the village and the hokage himself are reflected on the quality of his shinobi."

Iruka paused, watching everybody digesting what he had said, some swelling with pride, others showing some trepidation.

"Now, I have the team assignments, decided upon by the hokage himself. You shall be paired off with two others from this class, then be assigned to a Jounin as his students. Team 1, Kendo Ayuri..."

As Iruka started listing the teams, people kept stealing glances at the silent form of Naruto. It was unbelievable and unthinkable that the orange, loud-mouthed idiot could be reading a book of all things during team assignments.

"Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. Your Jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

* **SLAM** *

Sakura's calls of 'True love prevails' were aborted when everybody turned to Naruto who had smacked his book closed, his eyes on Iruka.

"You're kidding right, Iruka sensei?"

Iruka shook his head " I wouldn't joke around with subjects of this importance."

Naruto just shook his head, muttering something about senile old men "So basically, the third decided that the best course of action was to place me on the same team as the mentally damaged broody bastard who hates my guts, and the shrill, pink-haired banshee of a fangirl who thinks that punching others over the head is proper social etiquette, can't fight her way out of a paper bag and loses anything resembling intelligence in the presence of Duckbutt over there. Then, grabbing this disfunctional group, he decides to give them over to the chronically late, smut-reading cyclops. That's what you're telling me."

"Erm... Yes, basically. That's about it, Naruto" Answered Iruka with a grimace at Naruto's... _colourful_ descriptions. Sasuke could be heard grinding his teeth in the background while Sakura raged about the broody bastard and duckbutt labels, forgetting any insult on her own person.

Naruto slammed his head on his desk, a drawled "Great" emerging from his mouth.

Sakura stood up from her seat, intending on smacking Naruto, only for her fist to make contact with a chair at the last second as Naruto Kawarimi'd with it, making her wince at the sudden pain in her hand.

Coincidentally, a certain Uchiha suddenly lost his chair and fell on the ground in an undignified heap.

Naruto reappeared in the back of the class, sitting next to Shikamaru, back to his book. Iruka continued after a use of " **Big head jutsu** " to re-establish order in the classroom.

"The members of team 8 are Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. Their Jounin sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai. Team 9 is still in active duty, and Team 10 is composed of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji, whose Jounin sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma. Your sensei will be around to pick you up in a while, so please wait here for them."

And with that, Iruka left the room.

The instant the door closed, almost all pairs of eyes in the room turned towards Naruto, who acted as if he didn't even notice, reading his book.

Ino was the first to speak up, her gaze locked on Naruto "Well?"

Naruto kept reading, flipping the page over. As Sakura was about to scream again, Naruto interrupted.

"Well... what?"

"Well... What happened to you? Yesterday you were the dorky, dimwitted dead-last. Today you're the mysterious, hot dead-last. So, what happened to you?"

Naruto lowered his book slightly, making eye contact with Ino before deadpanning "Tactful, you are not." And like that, he went back to reading.

Sakura was gearing up for a scream again, before a black blur deposited a masked, black-garbed figure in the middle of the classroom. The figure looked at Naruto before saying "The hokage requested your presence at the end of the day, Uzumaki-san. The mission reward shall be awaiting you."

Naruto nodded before the figure disappeared in another blur. Any further questions stopped when the Jounin sensei decided to collect their students collectively, all with the exeption of a certain cyclops.

"What was that about, Dobe?"

'Ah, curiosity finally got the best of the bastard.' Naruto thought before answering "That what, duckbutt?"

Sasuke bristled at the insult, and Sakura once again geared up to punch Naruto in the head, only for the (now) dirty blonde to minutely move his head, making her miss entirely. Before things could escalate, a silver-haired figure peeked into the classroom.

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, meet me on the roof" Before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"Oh god, why Kakashi?" Naruto groaned before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, getting a surprised look from Sakura and a Jealous one from Sasuke, who had to walk their way to the roof.

 **\- At the roof -**

"Didn't know you could use the Sunshin." Kakashi lazily said from behind his orange book.

"Learnt it from you, Inu."

Book forgotten, Kakashi lazily looked up at Naruto, his nonchalant drawl hiding his shock "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I know more people think. Oh hey look at Duckbutt and Banshee."

Kakashi dropped the conversation as a disgruntled Sasuke and a sweating, huffing Sakura made their way to the benches in front of the man.

"Well" he started "I'm Hatake Kakashi, and I will be your Jounin instructor. I want each of you to introduce yourselves, Likes, dislikes, dreams and hopes, things like that. You first, pinkie."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched at the nickname before she showed her genius-level intelect in one simple sentence.

"I don't understand sensei, why don't you go first as an example?"

Naruto and Sasuke looked askance at Sakura, as if asking if she was crazy or stupid, while Kakashi once again asked himself why Minato and Obito died instead of him, leaving him to this. Sighing resignedly, he started out.

"Name's Hatake Kakashi, my age is irrelevant. Likes, meh. Dislikes, figure it out yourselves. Dreams? Not age appropriate. Now you go."

The lightbulb finally went off inside Sakura's head before she started out "I'm Haruno Sakura, I like..." she trailed off while looking at Sasuke adoringly, bringing a chill to his spine before continuing "my dislike, Naruto!"

Naruto looked up from his book at Sakura before asking distractedly "What's that? You say something?"

 _ **-Training ground 15, Team Gai training-**_

"Gai-Sensei!"

"Yes, Lee. I felt that wave of Hip coolness resonating around the village, my student. It seems there's someone as Hip and Cool as Kakashi. We must stay strong and fan the flames of our youth!"

"YOSH! GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

The two green-clad males embraced eachother, causing the emergence of a sunset with waves slamming into the rocky seaside.

The disturbed pair of Neji and TenTen could be seen doing their best to ignore them.

 _ **-With Team 7-**_

Sakura continued undaunted after Naruto's dismissal "My hopes and dreams for the future..." Before looking at Sasuke and giggling, lost in her imagination.

"Oooookay" Kakashi broke in "Not creepy at all. Now you, broody"

Sasuke bristled before speaking up "I'm Uchiha Sasuke, I don't like much, and I dislike many things. I have no dream, but rather an ambition, which is to kill a certain man..."

Sakura squaled internally at the 'cool' introduction before Naruto mumbled sarcastically " _Well that doesn't sound like a psycopath at all_ " then straightened up and put away his book to speak up.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi registration number 012607, my likes are training, getting stronger, ramen and having dirty, soul-sullying sex with as many beautiful women as possible, my dislikes are rapists, bigots, manipulative old mummies and spoiled brats. My dream for the future is having a large family with many wives and even more children."

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke's jaws hit the floor at the same time, different levels of disbelief running through their thoughts. Before any of them could say anything about it, Naruto spoke up again "We're done Sensei, now what?"

Kakashi managed to recover first, eye smiling at his students through his sweatdrop "Well, now that that's done, meet me tomorrow at training ground 7 at 8AM for your genin test"

"What do you mean genin test, sensei? Aren't we genin already?" Sakura asked with a tilted head

"Not at all, the academy test was just to see who had the ability to become a genin, the real test for the rank of genin is administered by the jounin. The test has a 66% failure rate, which means that on average, out of 9 people, only 3 pass. Your test will be... a surprise! But, I'd advise you not to eat anything for breakfast, otherwise you'll probably throw up. Ja ne!" And just like that, Kakashi vanished in a leaf sunshin.

Naruto followed suit with his own Sunshin, leaving a disgruntled Sasuke and a pleased Sakura behind on the roof.

"Sasuke-kun, do you want to go on a-" "No. Go away."

Sasuke walked off briskly, heading home to train. Sakura turned around, ready to refuse Naruto's request to go on a date before she noticed she was alone on the roof. She felt a pang of... something, but passed it off as just hunger and hurried off home to get ready for what was to follow the next day.

TBC

Scene! 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is property of Masashi Kishimoto and japanese, american, british and tanzanian dudes I know nothing about. I own only a pair of plyers, a rubber hose and a car battery.**

Sasuke Uchiha was having a pretty shit day.

It all started... When his older brother killed his entire family, in all honesty, but from his position, buried to the neck and incapable of moving after trying to pass his genin test, he had to admit that this day was in his top 5 worst.

Well... Maybe top 10, there were those times when fangirls snuck into his clan compound... And that one time where his shampoo dyed his hair green... But I digress.

Back to his current thoughts, it was being a pretty shit day, and it all started...

 _ **-10AM, Training ground 7-**_

" **YOU'RE LATE!** "

Sakura's screech sounded throughout the clearing, scaring off birds, deafening dogs and waking the dead. Our Whiny bitch... I mean... Avenger... Winced at the absolute violation of his eardrums.

Meanwhile, the cause of said screech, a certain blue-eyed, blond-haired shinobi simply shrugged at the pinkette, seemingly unnaffected by her word-like sounds "Sakura, has Kakashi-sensei made his presence known already?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Then I'm not late. Honestly he had us waiting for like, 3 hours yesterday, and you still came early?"

Sakura bristled before gearing up for another screech, causing Sasuke to wince and internally prepare himself for the sonic explosion, only to have it averted by Naruto pulling a cereal bar from his pocket, plopping himself down on the shade of a tree, opening his book and non-chalantly alternating between eating and reading.

Sakura and Sasuke simply goggled at his blatant disregard of their Sensei's instructions, and once again, as Sakura was gearing up for a scream, Naruto cut her off.

"He's not our Sensei yet, he only becomes our sensei if we pass the test, which means that he can't really give us orders yet. Plus, the no breakfast thing was a suggestion, at most an advice, it was not worded as an order. I mean, what kind of idiot tackles an unknown task in possibly enemy territory without properly feeding himself?"

Sakura blinked owlishly while Sasuke inwardly cursed at not noticing those things first, while at the same time asking himself when Naru- the Dobe ' _Whew, I almost recognized him there_ ' gained some measure of brains.

Averting any other question, Naruto tossed a cereal bar at each of his would-be teammates "Eat up, we can't beat the test unless we're all at full strength, I'd wager."

Sasuke eyed the offered food thoughtfuly, and before Sakura could scream at Naruto for disobeying or disregarding instructions he opened and bit into it. Sakura, ever the fangirl, decided that since Sasuke did it, she'd do it as well.

' _Sasuke-kun looks good even while eating a cereal bar! Squeeeeeee!_ '

' **Well Naruto looks pretty damn delectable as wel-... Did you just say... think... whatever... "squeee" ?** ' was inner Sakura's response to the pinkette's surface thoughts.

After the honestly not at all healthy one person mental conversation, team 7 simply lounged around, with Naruto reading his book and powering through cereal bars like there's no tomorrow, Sasuke eyeing Naruto speculatively and Sakura's gaze shifting from heart-eyed on Sasuke to curious on Naruto.

Naruto simply pretended not to notice.

' _Look at those cheeky brats_ ' Kakashi thought ' _Thinking that they don't need to follow a Jonin's advice. Well, it_ was _fake advice, but it's the thought that counts!_ '

The cycloptic ninja was watching his would-be team from a tree, concealing his presence and watched the entire interaction between his team members ' _Naruto's Academy results don't reflect his real intelligence at all... And is that a book on Fuuinjutsu (sealing arts) ? This is gonna be so troublesome..._ '

 _ **-Nara clan grounds-**_

A simultaneous mass of sneezes erupted from all Nara males all throughout the village, before a chorus of mumbled "troublesomes" reverberated through the walls. A certain Nara Shikamaru felt the urge to say "Troublesome blondes" for no reason, but it'd be too troublesome to do so.

 _ **-Back to training ground 7-**_

"Yo!"

" **YOU'RE LATE!** "

Once again, Sasuke winced at Sakura's screech. The reason of it this time? Their Jounin sensei arrived 2 hours and 30 minutes late to their test.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Naruto remove a pair of earplugs as he gingerly stood up to face Kakashi ' _Motherfucker! He wears earplugs so he doesn't have to suffer from her screeches!... I wish I had thought of that first._ '

"Well, I helped an old lady cross the road, but then I met up with a black cat so I had to take the long way around."

" **LIAR!** "

"So..." Naruto broke in "What is our test going to be, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi answered by pulling a pair of bells from his back pouch and tying them to his side one with some ninja wire "I have two bells. Your objective is going to be taking at least one bell from me. The one without a bell by noon will be sent back to the academy. By the way, if you want to take the bells you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill."

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura quickly sobered up at that, focusing intently on the bells by Kakashi's side, before looking at eachother. Kakashi allowed them to have their dramatic staredown with a pair of inanimate objects because... reasons, before calling out "GO!"

Sasuke and Sakura jumped into the greenery around the clearing, trying to suppress their presence as much as possible ' _Sasuke is hiding well for someone fresh out of the academy, a few chunin would have trouble noticing him. Sakura isn't all that bad either, but for all her supposed intelligence she didn't think to cover her bright pink hair_. _And Naruto..._ '

Was standing right in front of him, stretching his legs in a crouch.

"Well, aren't you going to try to hide like your little teammates?"

"You said to go at you as if we were trying to kill you. If I tried to kill you from the shadows Konoha would be down an elite shinobi."

Kakashi's eye twitched at that declaration "Well aren'tyou cocky? Just because you beat Mizuki doesn't mean you're on pair with me."

Naruto sighed before speaking up "I regularly prank chunin, jounin and ANBU alike, sneak into the ANBU HQ and even invade the Hyuga clan complex in bright orange. Do you think you could detect me in actually stealth-adequate clothing?" Kakashi frowned thoughtfuly at that, deciding to not underestimate the boy.

"Plus" Naruto said, before a massive, somewhat bloodthirsty grin overtook his face "It's not everyday you can face Copy Ninja Kakashi in combat."

Kakashi's eyes widened and only instincts honed by years of active duty allowed him to block the kick thrown to his torso, his arms placed in a cross guard. He responded by taking hold of Naruto's outstretched ankle and slamming him into the ground hard, raising a cloud of dust ' _He's fast. I wasn't expecting him to move like that. Plus, he managed to pull out a Kawarimi at the last second before the impact. To pull off a replacement at that speed with so little preparation... Impressive._ '

Kakashi's arm somewhat blurred before a flick of his wrist threw a Kunai straight behind him, the moving form of Naruto tilting his head to the side in order to avoid it before sliding into a low sweep which Kakashi jumped over. The copy ninja retaliated by snapping a kick towards his face which Naruto blocked with his left forearm, his right hand flicking a shuriken towards Kakashi's eye. Kakashi used a Kawarimi at the last moment, trading places with a log.

The two stood back up, looking eachother in the eye before dashing towards the other, engaging in a fierce exchange of punches and kicks.

' _Naruto's speed and taijutsu are at least chunin level already... What the heck were the academy records people smoking when they emitted his?_ '

Kakashi managed to deflect one of Naruto's punches, responding by landing a solid hook on his cheek, sending him backwards...

Only to vanish into a cloud of smoke.

' _He even knows and can use the Kage Bunshin! Now I really want to know what the academy folk were smoking._ '

Kakashi's foot effortlessly snapped backwards, hitting Naruto in the throat before he once again turned into a cloud of smoke. Suddenly, ten Naruto's emerged from the folliage around him, tossing shuriken at him from all angles ' _He wasn't bluffing about his stealth skills..._ '

He was preparing to deflect the Shuriken flying towards him before he witnessed all the Naruto's going through a particular chain of handseals ' _Shuriken Kage bunshin no jutsu... That's bad!_ '

" **Uzumaki Naruto Style: Shuriken Kage Bunshin Barrage!** "

Each of the naruto's threw 10 shuriken, which they multiplied by 10 each, meaning that 1000 shuriken were en route to turn Kakashi into swiss cheese. The copy ninja went through a few handseals of his own before seemingly being interrupted as the rain of metal skewered him... Only for a log to appear in his place.

"I guess I'm gonna have to be a little serious" Kakashi's voice sounded out behind the original Naruto, causing the blond to instantly turn 180 degrees and jumping backwards to make distance, only to have to twist himself middair at the last second to avoid a punch to the back of the head by Kakashi. As soon as Naruto's feet touched the ground, another 10 clones emerged sealessly and smokelessly around him, taking the large amount of projectiles that kakashi had somehow sent from all around him, mimicking his barrage minus the numbers.

Naruto blurred again, appearing in front of Kakashi with a Kunai mid-slash only for Kakashi's own held blade to intercept his, sparks emerging at the clashing of metal. They traded blows, a few rips and tears appearing on Kakashi's clothes while a few gashes made themselves known on Naruto's arms and face. Naruto threw a few shuriken that Kakashi dodged, allowing them to fly into the treetops before re-engaging, locking their kunai together before Kakashi grasped Naruto's wrist and reared back his closed fist for a punch to the face only for the sound of whistling metal to come from behind him. He Kawarimi'd at the last second, the same pair of shuriken Naruto had previously thrown being the ones to impale the log.

' _Managing to curve his thrown shuriken like that take some real skill. I am very impressed._ ' Were Kakashi's thoughts.

Naruto decided to impress him further, by going through another few handseals before calling out " _ **Wind style: Great Breakthrough!**_ "

The wave of air hit Kakashi head-on, sending him flying through the air for a while before he righted himself and landed on his feet, retaliating by going through his own handseals " _ **Water Style: Water Bullets!**_ "

The water projectiles were shot in a wide cone, peppering the environment around Naruto and shredding through treebark and blasting dirt away. Naruto Kawarimi'd with another of his hidden clones before his eyes lit up, and to Kakashi's surprise, jump into the greenery, erasing his presence.

The jounin narrowed his visible eye as he tried to keep track of the blond, but Naruto wasn't just blowing hot air about his hiding skills ' _The dispersal of Kage bunshin, wind jutsu, the shuriken kage bunshins and constant kawarimi's filled the clearing with residual chakra. He's supressing his own chakra and at the same time covering himself in this cloud of residue. He is way too good for a fresh genin, I'll have to get answers from Hokage-sama._ '

Kakashi's thought process was interrupted by a punch that he intercepted, before snapping out a quick kick at torso height to his attacker, throwing him against a tree. Feeling the hard blow connect cleanly, he looked back at his attacker only to see the form of Uchiha Sasuke struggling to get past his daze and the pain to stand and fight. He noticed Sasuke was obviously seething and impatient, why he didn't know.

 _ **-In the bushes, with Naruto-**_

' _Nice, stage one of the plan was a success. Now that Sasuke saw how strong I am he'll try to push Kakashi as I did and get his ass handed to him, of that there's no doubt. All that's left is how to deal with Sakura..._ '

 _ **-Back to Kakashi-**_

Kakashi sighed inwardly. He was still apprehensive and running at a higher pace from his bout with Naruto, so he reflexively reacted at that strength without actually discerning his oponent. It was clear that despite being rookie of the year, Sasuke wasn't the best in his class. ' _Still, he was moving at somewhat High-genin speeds, that's nothing to scoff at for his age and level._ '

Then Kakashi did absolutely the worst thing he could at the moment. He opened his book, summarily disregarding Sasuke as a threat.

The Uchiha's hands twitched, his eyebrows suffering a set of seizures and you could almost see the froth at the corner of his mouth.

' _He took the dobe seriously, but will fight me while_ _ **reading a fucking book?**_ '

Sasuke was kind of right for getting mad. Dick move Kakashi.

Anyways.

Sasuke decided then and there to give his best to Kakashi, throwing a cluster of shuriken only for the cyclops to jump over them. Sasuke's fingers twitched as he tugged on the wire attached to both the main shuriken and the secondary ones he threw in their shadows. The wire twisted itself around Kakashi, trapping him as Sasuke went through a slew of handseals " _ **Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Flames!**_ "

The flames travelled down the wires, exploding once they reached their target. Sasuke's breathing returned to normal as he waited to see the result of his attack, only for Kakashi's voice to lazily sound beside him "Nice move, kid."

Sasuke jumped upwards, powering through handseals before he even turned around, twisting middair and focusing the remainder of his chakra on a single jutsu " _ **Fire style: Fire ball jutsu!**_ "

A massive fireball emerged from his mouth, at least 10 meters in diameter, speeding towards Kakashi's form, before connecting with the ground with a large explosion which tossed him backwards. He managed to right himself mid-jump, breathing deeply as he had all but exhausted his chakra. He kept his eyes on the smoke, only to be surprised as he felt a pair of hands grabbing his ankles and dragging him into the ground, leaving him trapped up to his neck.

Which brings us back to the start.

' _Kill Itachi, Kill Kakashi, Kill Naruto..._ '

Sasuke's thought process was disturbing, but nobody ever said he was mentally well-adjusted, right?

As Sasuke started his 10th mental list of people to kill, Naruto's voice made itself heard behind him "Hey, Sasuke. How's it feel to become Kakashi's bitch?"

The sound of glass breaking coul almost literally beheard from within Sasuke's head as he worked himself into a blind fury. Something pulled him out of the earth, but he paid no attention to it, preferring to instead focus all of his resources on erasing Naruto permanently.

Naruto simply snickered inwardly ' _Step 2, complete! Now all I need is a certain scarecrow..._ '

 _ **-30 seconds later-**_

The sounds of explosions could be heard as explosive tags detonated all around the clearing of training field 7. Sasuke was chasing after Naruto, tossing paper tag after paper tag at the blond via Kunai which somehow seemed to materialize into his hands whenever he needed them. Naruto simply kept jogging around the training field as he tried to piece out Kakashi's chakra. When two specific shadow clones dispelled, sending him some information, he knew that it was time.

Naruto suddenly made a sharp turn into a few bushes, Sasuke throwing a barrage of Tagged Kunai before a large fireball exploded from said bush, a pair of blurs emerging from it. The calm, if somewhat singed, form of Uzumaki Naruto, and the exasperated and confused form of Hatake Kakashi.

' _So Sasuke went from trying to kill me to trying to kill Naruto... When did that happen?_ '

His thoughts were interrupted when Naruto jumped behind Kakashi, trying to avoid the explosive tags. As Sasuke threw more than a few their way, Kakashi tried to get out of the way with Naruto, when he noticed that Naruto wasn't trying to hide behind him.

He was _holding him in place_.

A loud explosion reverberated throughout the clearing before Kakashi reapered after a successful Kawarimi, only to jump backwards away from a Kunai slash aimed at his throat courtesy of Naruto, to then have to throw himself to the ground and roll sideways to evade a group of Kunai and shuriken descending from a few trees ' _That was Sakura, if I'm not mistaken..._ '

That short lapse of thought was enough for Naruto's presence to make itself known right in front of him, a massive grin on his face before he started glowing from certain body areas. Kakashi's eye widened as Naruto simply said "Boom." which was followed by a large explosion which once again forced Kakashi to kawarimi.

' _By the sacred log, this fight is giving my Kawarimi skills a good workout!_ _Guess I'll have to use_ that _..._ '

As he reached for the lowered side of his headband, the alarm clock he had set for noon shot off, breaking Sasuke out of his murderous rage (somehow), and making Kakashi relax as he no longer had to fight that Trickster in the skin of a shinobi, Uzumaki Naruto.

"Well, you kids put up a good fight, but I guess it wasn't good enough" the white haired man said with a sigh "After all, it is noon and none of you have any of the bells."

Naruto grinned at Kakashi before speaking up "Do you mean these bells, Sensei?" and producing the pair of bells from behind him.

Kakashi goggled at him before looking down to where the bells were, only to find a pair of tiny, similarly-weighted rocks hanging from the strings.

"How did you... when did you... Huh?"

Sasuke and Sakura were similarly confused, prompting the blond to explain.

"Basically, the how was through strategy. The test was to take the bells from you by force, but there's no way you'd expect three fresh genin-to-be to forcibly take them. The simple fact that you used the bells as a divisive tactic wouldn't have tipped me off on it's own, as you could have your own judgement parameters, but when you mentioned 'the one without the bell returning to the academy' then I knew you were bullshitting us. The standard procedure for Konoha genin teams is to have three genin and one jounin, and in rare cases _more_ teammates. Smaller teams are special and are crafted specifically by the hokage, not the result of standard mass-testing. I knew that straight-up trying to coordenate with Sasuke and Sakura would be basically impossible. Sasuke would simply ignore my suggestions, disregard mine and Sakura's roles in the plan and try to put himself as the main acting force as he believes himself to be the most capable, and the 'elite'. Sakura would basically eat her own shoes if Sasuke asked her to, so if Sasuke didn't go for it, which was as likely as orochimaru walking into the village and making up with the hokage with hugs, kisses and handshakes.

"So basically I decided to get your fired up, blood pumping and reflexes sharpened so your guard was up, and to make you look at me as a strong and capable individual in this exercise. Sasuke, being the delightfuly friendly person that he is, would instantly get mad that someone his own age was stronger than him, and try to show himself as being ' _all that_ '. Running off of the adrenaline of facing my potentially deadly techniques, you'd kick around Sasuke's ass and dismiss him as a threat before disabling him, which would cause him to snap. After that...

 _ **-A few minutes earlier, Training field 7 bushes-**_

"So let me get this straight. Sasuke-kun is going to chase you around throwing possibly deadly attacks in order to distract Kakashi-sensei, only for you to maneuver him into a position where Sasuke-kun is going to try to take him out. If that fails, you will position him so that I can try my own shot at disabling him. Is that the plan?"

"Yes, that's basically it."

"Are you sure Sasuke-kun said that he accepted this plan?"

 ***BOOM!***

Naruto whistled lowly "Would you look at that, Sasuke is throwing deadly, exploding projectiles at me and putting up a fuss. Sounds a bit as if he accepted his role in a certain plan of mine..."

"Well... If Sasuke-kun is doing it, then I'm going to join in too."

 _ **-Back to Now-**_

"And that's how I manipulated my teammates into helping me fulfill the mission and complete the objective."

Kakashi sighed at his charge's deviousness "Mind telling me when you pulled off the switch?"

"When I went behind you with Sasuke chasing after me. The reason the kunai I gave him had explosive tags were to the noise of the explosions could cover up the sound of me taking the bells away from you. Then I simply Kawarimi'd with a Shadow clone and boom, insta bells. The rest was simply me trying to keep you from noticing the loss of the bells until the time limit. After all, while you said we had to take the bells, you did not say you wouldn't try to recover them."

"And what if you were wrong? If getting the bells really meant passing the test, what would you have done?"

"Well, I'd give the bells to these two idiots. Since I already have an completed S-rank mission registered on my record, I can't be simply sent back to the academy by anyone other than the Hokage as I lacked a direct superior in the form of a squad leader or Jonin sensei. I'd give them the bells, and whether they made it or not, I'd still be a shinobi" He said with a careless shrug, causing the jaws of Sasuke and Sakura to hit the ground, and Kakashi's eyebrow to reach his hairline.

He absentmindedly kept going, speaking more to himself than anything else "Honestly, after dealing with so much bullshit from the civillian council, if I didn't know the lawbooks then I'd be fucked."

Kakashi's mood turned rather somber at that, while Sakura and Sasuke became confused. Without giving them any time to react, Naruto called out "Well, I've places to be, and people to see. Bye!" And disappeared in a Sunshin.

Kakashi's last thoughts were centered around just how much of his real self was Naruto showing.

 **That's a chapter done! Naruto and Friends (?) have become full-fledged genin of Konoha, all because of Naruto's devious mind and penchant for unpredictable tactics. Where will the story take our heroes next? You'll have to find out in the next chapter!**

 **Also, sorry for the lack of Updates for Harry Potter: His own person but it's more difficult to write properly for that story than for Naruto as it is quite a bit more serious. Add to that holiday season craze, and... Yeah, you get what I mean. I don't really know when the next update will be, but I'll try to give you something satisfactory in exchange. Maybe an Omake or two.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is property of Masashi Kishimoto and other people whose names I cannot pronounce properly. I own a measly trenchcoat, a pair of kiddie scissors and some duct tape.**

 **Enjoy!**

 _ **-Undisclosed location, Fire country-**_

"Report!" Came the voice from behind a curtain of shadows. A black-garbed individual approached him and started to go into a kneeling posture before a hand reached out from behind the darkness and waved that motion off.

With a nod, the figure stood ramrod straight, it's hand making it's way toward it's heart in a close-fisted salute before a muffled voice came from behind it's mask "We have contacted the rebels in Kiri and are in negotiations with them at the moment. They are in need of aid, but still they are suspicious of our offered help, which makes the resolution of the conflict more difficult."

Everybody in the room could feel their leader's nod, despite the fact that they could not peer past the darkness shrouding it. Then it spoke in a soft tone, it's voice slightly distorted, or even muffled by perhaps a mask of some type "It simply means that they're cautious. We'd rather have cautious, self-aware 'acquaintances' than allies that let themselves be manipulated by promises of 'easy victory'. They are not trying to win a war for the glory. They fight to the last breath for the lives of the innocent people being slaughtered by Yagura's regime. It is why I ever considered aiding them."

There was a pause, and the leader seemed to be thinking about something, before he spoke once more "What of the situation in the Village Hidden in the Woods?"

This time a different figure, a tomboyish woman clad in a white outter jacket, with a backless, black tank top and black kimono pants and a pair of straw sandals over a pair of white socks, her black hair mostly short with a single, thin braid going down her back, a katana strapped to her left hip spoke up "We are making advances in the liberation of the land, but we are met by resistance from _ROOT_. At this rate we estimate the conflict to stretch for about two to three more months before we manage to achieve superiority."

The figure let out a tired sigh "That won't do, Soi Fong. The longer the conflict goes on, the more innocent lives are lost."

The now identified Soi Fong stood tall and proud, feeling her lord's analytic gaze settling on her before moving to a shadowed corner in the room "Hayabusa. You, Soi Fong and Ibuki are to lead an armed force into _ROOT_ 's base in the area. And remember, no enemy survives, no weapon is left behind, no resource is wasted and no brick stays standing. "

The shadow in the corner of the room seemed to give a tiny nod before it shifted, leaving the corner actually empty now. Soi Fong sent her leader an adoring look, one showing extreme devotion on all levels and undying belief in him. No matter how much he said otherwise, she belonged to him and only him, forever and always. She gave a tiny bow, the fanatic glint in her eye promising death to her master's enemies before she too disappeared.

The Shadowed Leader looked across the remaining people in the room, taking in the ecletic assortment of individuals of different builds, temperaments, hair colors and origins. That did not matter anymore as they joined together under his banner willingly. They were now his companions, his partners in his ambitions in life. He knew he had their loyalty, just as they knew he'd jump into a burning building if it meant protecting them. He lowly muttered something before calling out "Dismissed" , causing all but one of the people in the room to blur away. Once they were completely alone said figure stepped closer to her leader.

She was a curvaceous woman, garbed in a 3/4 sleeve orange jacket , beige arm warmers with blue lines running through them, a pair of black pants separated from her torso by a burn-orange sash, her feet clad in purple shoes. Her eyes were of a somewhat unnatural, yet no less beautiful yellow, and her purple hair was set in a single high ponytail that reached her waist. Like Soi Fong she also wore a backless, sleeveles black undershirt.

"You do know that you are Soi Fong's everything, right? She looks at you as the brightest light in the world."

The figure rubbed it's temples and heaved out a sigh "I know, Yoruichi, and it's somewhat troubling. Though it is quite flattering, I don't like people blindly and fanatically following me. I want companions that think, and complain, and tell me when I'm being stupid, but no matter how much I tell her that she doesn't change."

Yoruichi snickered before she plopped herself on the figure's lap, feeling his hand automatically going to her head and petting her as if she were in her feline form, eliciting a satisfied purr from her "The fact that you are so upfront and honest about these kinds of things and actually listen just makes her, and everybody else believe even more in you, and further earns you their devotion."

"This kind of thing is why I didn't want to be the leader" the shadow whined.

"What's wrong" Yoruichi said between purrs "Are you giving up on our organization... Naruto-sama?"

The figure shifted slightly, lifting the veil of shadows to reveal a pair of cerulean blue eyes and bright yellow hair paired to very distinct whisker-shaped birthmarks on his face.

Naruto pouted like a young child before whining "I told you not to call me Naruto-Sama! I hate having the people close to me refer to me so impersonally!"

Yoruichi twisted in his lap, locking her eyes on his, her large-ish breasts pressing against his chest as she molded herself to him "Mhm, are you saying you want to get to know me more personally? Maybe if we got closer I'd refer to you by something more casual, such as 'honey' or 'dear'"

As she closed the distance between their faces Naruto's head slightly shifted to the side, causing Yoruichi's lips to land on his cheek and getting a disappointed huff from the catgirl. He spoke with an amused chuckle "As tempting as that offer is, if I took you on without my Queen there to... _enjoy you_... alongside me, I'd be a dead man. She's pretty terrifying when she's mad."

Yoruichi's eyes lighted up mischievously at this "Well aren't you a perverted couple?"

"Bet your sweet, shapely ass we are!" Naruto answered with absolute honesty, before going silent as he silently seemed to mull something over. He dislodged Yoruichi from his lap much to her dismay, stretching lightly before he spoke "Yoruichi, Danzo is being a pain. I want you to unearth his bases, gather as much info as possible on his operatives and get everything on his allies and partners that you can."

Youruichi's demeanor turned serious "What's he trying now?"

"He wants to force me into his program, turn me into a mindless attack drone that responds only to his commands."

Yoruichi hissed venomously at that, her feline side making itself shown "Should I endeavour to liquidate him as well?"

Naruto shook his head at that "No, I do not want him dead yet. He can still be somewhat useful to our goals. If we killed him, all of his resources would go to waste and his allies underground. If the man is as twisted as I think he is, then his allies are the type of people that need to take a sudden 'long vacation', and having them disappearing won't accomplish that. No. I want him to lose control of every resource he amassed, deny him the mark in history he so desires to be, have him belatedly realise that his world is crumbling around him before burying him in an unmarked grave. Few people truly deserve to suffer, and Danzo is one of these few."

Youruichi nodded before disappearing in a blur. Naruto stood there for a bit, looking across the now empty room before sighing and stepping back into the shadows, his presence completely disappearing from the room.

 _ **-Konohagakure no Sato, a few hours later-**_

Hatake Kakashi is an elite jounin of the hidden leaf village, former ANBU captain and the fourth strongest leaft shinobi at the moment, and second strongest in the village. He was used to dealing with high risk missions involving espionage, assassination, interrogation and many other things, which relied heavily on reading others in order to succeed. He was proud to say that he was mostly successful in his carreer, with the exception of a few significant screw ups.

Which is why he was currently so frustrated, though he did not show it. The source of his frustration?

Naruto Uzumaki.

He still remembered the conversation he had with the Hokage after team 7's Genin exam...

 _ **-A few days earlier, Hokage's office-**_

"Team 3 failed, but members Akina Hoshi and Mikare Kageyaba show promise. I'd recommend adding them to the reserve genin pool and have them doing supplementary training, then re-instating them as full genin in 6 months."

"Team 4 failed. They are a right mess. No coordination, no teamwork. Their individual skills leave much to be desired and honestly they don't have the mentality needed for the job."

"Team 5... No. Just No. A right mess."

"Team 6 was also a failure, though Rengu Akayaba could prove to be a proper shinobi later on in life, with more maturity."

At that moment everybody's focus shifted to the silver-haired cyclops lazily reading an orange coloured book and giggling occasionally, drawing frowns from most of the female shinobi present in the room. The Hokage sweatdropped at Kakashi's nonchallance, deciding to head off any arguments before the tension in the room could overflow.

"What about your team, young Kakashi? Did they perform to your satisfaction?"

Kakashi's eye left the pages of the book, his half-lidded gaze belying the intensity behind his gaze. His eye focused on the Hokage as if searching for something before he shrugged and spoke up "No, they did not perform to my satisfaction."

Most sighed in resignation, already expecting Kakashi to fail the genin as he had all his previous others...

"They absolutely went above and beyond and smashed any spectative I had of them."

Only to freeze and gape disbelievingly at his words.

Before Hiruzen could ask the jounin a question, Asuma did so "Are you saying that they passed?"

Kakashi nodded before speaking "With flying colours. This squad absolutely surprised me and I believe that the caliber of shinobi that we can expect to come from it will be the new face of Konoha. In time they will be as legendary as the Sannin, or maybe even more."

Asuma let out a low whistle, knowing that Kakashi didn't just praise people out of the blue. And coming from a genious who made jounin at 12, that much praise was saying something "So the Uchiha impressed you that much?"

Once again Kakashi's answer surprised everyone in the room "Honestly, not at all. Facing him was quite honestly a letdown. Don't get me wrong, he already functions at genin level and that's nothing to sneeze at, but based on the glowing praise in his academy records, added to his ego and the way he carries himself... I honestly expected more."

"Then is it Haruno Sakura you're talking about?" asked Yuuhi Kurenai, the black-haired red-eyed newly promoted jounin, and the woman hailed as the genjutsu mistress of Konoha "After all, though her practical results were average, everything in the theory cathegory as basically hers for the taking in the academy. If she applies those concepts and that knowledge, and works hard in getting past her mediocrity in the physical sense of things she should go far.

Kakashi sighed before answering with a headshake "No, as much as that analysis would be correct in most cases, it does not apply to Sakura. Sakura is nothing more, nothing less than a hardcore fangirl. A _Sasuke_ fangirl. Being squadded with her target of affection basically negates any sort of intelligence she could be displaying, and quite honestly she couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag. During the entire test she only acted once, and that wasn't even her own intention."

"You don't mean..." Asuma started, getting a nod from Kakashi and an annoyed look from the Hokage "Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the kid but his academy results painted a very grim picture of him as a possible shinobi."

Kakashi grunted in annoyance "That's the thing, his academy results aren't worth the paper they were printed on. I read back on everything and I noticed a pattern, he basically did the least amount of work he could get away with and still pass, his grades never went to failing territory, his practical work was always passable, but just barely and his grades and taijutsu were the same. But then I saw the results of his final exam where he scored the highest since Uchiha Itachi and I understood what happened. Naruto was holding back, hiding his actual knowledge and skills. And those aren't at all insignificant."

"What exactly do you mean?" The question came from an unexpected source, the purple-haired, brown-eyed Tokubetsu Jounin clad in a beige trenchcoat and mesh undershirt, with a purple miniskirt to finish the look "He shouldn't be strong enough to shake you like this, right?"

Kakashi sighed, and to everyone's surprise actual irritation slipped into his normally lazy tone "That's the thing, I don't know how strong he is. During the bell test he took me on solo and managed to somewhat push me. He kept his speed and taijutsu skills mostly at chunin level, but his battle tactics, his jutsu knowledge and his flexible strategies are beyond that. The kid already knows elemental ninjutsu, shadow clones, exploding clones and shuriken shadow clones. He shows a mastery of the academy three that could make some jounin jealous, especially the kawarimi. He was constantly engaging and disengaging in combat with me, constantly keeping me in my toes without giving me the time to plan against him or go after his teammates, and during battle he would be fighting me only to suddenly become a shadow clone. He kept replacing himself with clones without me noticing, which meant that I couldn't really keep track of the real and fake Narutos. When he decided to retreat, his presence basically disappeared. I simply could not sense him. Then he manipulates his teammates into distracting me to reach the objective, and then screws with the rules of the genin test!"

"How so?"

Kakashi procceeded to explain Naruto's plan on "cooperating" with Sasuke and Sakura and then his use of a loophole in the chain of command sequence to automatically be exempt from the results of the test, whichever they might have been.

Suffice it to say, all the jounin in the room were impressed.

"The brat sounds pretty interesting" Anko started "His ability to read and psychologically manipulate people, coupled with his misdirection skills, ability to bend rules and sense of opportunity means that he could do great working in T&I under me and Ibiki. We'd just have to pound him into a proper shinobi in the other aspects."

Kakashi shook his head "You don't understand. Do not forget that I said that he moved at Chunin speeds. I never said that that was his limit."

"You're saying..." Hiruzen started, only for Kakashi to finish "That he probably could do even better. Hell, the fact that I couldn't get an accurate read on whether that was his best or not is enough proof of his skill level. With being this good at his age, if he keeps progressing at this rate then he could really end up as strong as, if not stronger, than even the sannin."

Random Jounin #146, one of those dicks that despised Naruto despite the fact that they knew the difference between the sealing scroll and the kunai asked in a bellitling fashion "Are you sure that it isn't _that thing's_ influence?"

Kakashi shook his head "No, that was all him."

Hiruzen nodded before speaking up "Kakashi, keep an eye on him and report any developments to me. I need to stay on top of the top prospects in the village, and with the skill levels of both Naruto and Sasuke, and the theoretical knowledge of Sakura to complement them your squad could go very far." The rest of the debriefing continued with Kurenai and Asuma declaring the passing of their individual squads, but they both knew that at the moment everybody's thoughts were on a certain blond individual. Before long the Hokage dismissed everybody.

Kakashi stayed behind, waiting for everybody else to be out of earshot before adressing the Hokage "You did not seem surprised by the information I supplied, Hokage-sama."

"Indeed I was not."

"A warning would not have been amiss."

Hiruzen sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, his headache once again growing as he remembered Naruto's last words to him during the night of the scroll incident, the stiff and overly formal adress of 'Hokage-Sama', so very unlike the typical ' _Jiji_ '.

"It seems young Naruto was aware of more than we thought, and he did not like the fact that I was keeping secrets from him. He seems to have lost a degree of trust in me. When, I cannot say as I myself had no idea of how good he was. In not giving you a warning I was trying to get a reading on how strong he actually was. What you brought to attention today did not explain everything, but it cleared up more than we previously knew, and for now that will have to be enough. I just hope he trusts me again."

"Do you think that he knows about-"

"No, I do not believe so, otherwise he would be announcing it to everyone in a 5 mile radius. Or, the old Naruto would have, at least. Now, I honestly have no idea. But for now we will let sleeping dogs lie and keep an eye on him."

Kakashi nodded before making his way out of the office.

 _ **-End Flashback-**_

Extremely long flashbacks aside, Naruto's mysterious nature frustrated him. Kakashi organized team training and had them doing physical work that should be running them ragged, but Naruto simply breezed through them. He did self-training during taijutsu practice because he had a personal fighting style that he did not want others to know about, and Kakashi could respect that, but the fact that he would constantly and easily rebuff his attempts at getting more information through seemingly inocuous but actually probing questions showed a very keen and aware mind.

He also shrugged off any inquiries made by Sasuke or Sakura about his private life and Sasuke's challenges to fight, preferring to keep more to himself while reading his book, so while they were an effective team, statement proven by the fact that they were reporting back on the Tora capture mission (actually Naruto had just run off into the woods and returned 5 minutes later with a totally relaxed and happily purring Tora nestled in his arms, breaking the record of the fastest capture by miles) at the hokage's office.

 _ **-Hokage's office-**_

"Team 7 reporting on the successful capture of the Daimiyo wife's cat, sir!"

Iruka goggled from where he stood with the mission scrolls "Already? It hasn't been 15 minutes since you were assigned the mission!"

"We spent more time walking than actually chasing Tora. She is a pretty nice kitty who doesn't like causing trouble, right?" Naruto asked while playing with the cat in his arms, getting a purr from said cat and a large sweatdrop from all the other shinobi in the room. The cat's owner went into the room to retrieve it, and after a suggestion from Naruto in adjusting her hugging syle with the cat, a content Madame Shijimi and an even more content Tora vacated the office.

"Now that that's done with, could we please get a C-rank? It might've been funny for all of two days seeing Emo and Banshee's disgruntled looks at those glorified shores, but then it got boring very quickly."

"I agree" came from Kakashi "I believe my team's efficiency shows that they are ready for an increase in mission difficulty."

Iruka seemed to have wanted to protest, but a look at Naruto reminded him of the night of Mizuki's betrayal, so he knew the blonde would be okay on his own, and Kakashi could take care of Sasuke and Sakura should anything happen.

Kakashi and Hiruzen's thoughts were similar as they saw this mission as an oportunity to learn more about Naruto and his skills in actual combat.

"Very well, Kakashi-kun. Iruka, bring in the bridge builder."

The chunin bowed to the Hokage and stepped out of the office, returning with an older man holding a bottle of sake and smelling of brewery "I hire a squad of ninja and this is what I get? A duckbutt head, a skinny pink-top and a girly blond-..."

Tazuna was interrupted by his now-broken sake bottle, a kunai having gone straight through it and embedded itself into one of the walls, originating from Naruto. When everybody turned to look at him he sheepishly and far too innocently asked "What? I was just trying to kill a fly on that wall."

Tazuna seemed to sober up quickly at that as arrangements were made for the team to reunite at the village gates with gear for a few days outside.

"Equipment check" Kakashi said as he stood in front of his three genin.

"Change of clothes for 3 days, one-person tent, a few ration bars, 1 meter of ninja wire, 35 kunai and 20 shuriken."

Kakashi nodded appreciatively before turning to face Sakura.

"Clothes for 3 days, two-person tent, soldier pills, 20 kunai and 20 shuriken."

Kakashi neither nodded nor shook his head, turning to Naruto only to see the blonde without even a single bag "Naruto, where are your things?"

"Sealing scrolls in my pouches. I've got changes of clothes for 5 days, 5 day stock of ration bars and bottled water, a bottle of soldier pills, 5 meters of ninja wire, 100 Kunai and 150 shuriken, a tanto and a different blade."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow only to be met with a shrug from Naruto "There's no such thing as _over_ preparing."

The copy ninja nodded before Team 7 walked past the village gates, making their first foray into the real world of shinobi duty.

Little did they know that things were not to be so peaceful for long.

 **Omake:**

 **Ougi no Jutsu (Alternatively known as Moron-zuki's beating)**

"I'm going to kick your ass, Mizuki!"

Mizuki just scoffed at the demon brat's claims and asked in a derisive tone "And just how are you going to do it?"

Naruto cracked his knuckles "With the latest technique I learned in the scroll, the 'Ultimate Jutsu' no Jutsu!"

"Ultimate what no what now?"

Instead of getting a proper response, Mizuki got a faceful of fist from a blue glowing Naruto before suddenly everything went dark around him. The night area of the forest got replaced with a sunny, blue-sky open field and his body felt as heavy as jello as he watched the blonde run towards him, a group of clones after him. The clones layed a wallop into him before throwing him backwards. Naruto then disappeared in a blur, showing up behind Mizuki releasing a fiery rising punch "Shinryuuken!"

The traitorous chunin was sent upwards, only to look down and see the blond going into a semi-squatting position with his arms at his side, a blue glow emerging from them "KA- ME"

At this point, if possible, his hair got even blonder as a golden-yellow aura spread around him "HA-ME"

Naruto cocked his arms back, focusing the sphere completely before pointing it upwards at Mizuki " **HA!** "

A yellow beam of energy flew towards Mizuki, making him feel as if he were burned from the inside out before being exploded, but somehow his body was still intact and he was still alive. As he was about to reach the ground he felt a presence behind him before hearing a cry of " **Getsuga Tensho!** " and being engulfed by a reddish-maroon wave of energy which sent him flying. The same presence, Naruto's, now wearing a fox-like porcelain mask spoke in a distorted tone " **Cero!** " releasing a beam of energy which once again ragdolled Mizukiand this time let him hit the ground.

Naruto disappeared again, showing up above Mizuki and calling out " **Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gattling!** " releasing a barrage of, somehow, gigantic, steel hard, black-coloured fists that absolutely wrecked the are around them.

Naruto disappeared again, reappearing with his feet set on the ground, across Mizuki. A weird pair of flaming gloves was on his hands, and an orange flame burned on his forehead. He pointed the palm of his hands one towards Mizuki, the other in the opposite direction before firing the opposite one as he charged the one towards Mizuki. As the charge finished building, he called out " **X-Burner!** " releasing a blast of concentrated orange... something... which exploded the white haired chunin.

 _ **-15 hours and a fuckload of different anime later-**_

" **Kaze no Kizu!** (Wind Scar)" a blade of sharp air and youki was released from a massive blade, shredding Mizuki but somehow not killing him before the reality of the glassy plains seemed to shatter, taking them back to the forest not 1 minute after Naruto first used the Jutsu.

Iruka saw the form of Mizuki in a foetal position, hugging his knees to his chest and rocking forwards and backwards while mumbling " _No more please, mercy, that's not supposed to bend that way, that hole is supposed to be exit only_ ".

Looking between his broken, traitorous ex-friend and the sheepish-looking genin, he decided not to ask.


	5. Chapter 5: Into the waves

_**DIsclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and some cigar smoking, office-sitting, suit wearing dudes and dudettes. I own only a pair of sandals and a can of WD-40.**_

 _ **-Root Hideout, unknown location-**_

"Danzo-sama, Uzumaki and his team have just left the village. They seem to be heading towards Wave country in a C-rank mission to protect a bridge builder."

A figure in a blank, ANBU-like mask spoke tonelessly from his kneeling position in front of Danzo, who was seated on his throne. Said man was thoughtful for a bit, before turning towards another indistinctively masked individual "Give me the details on Wave."

Said figure nodded silently before speaking up "Wave, an island country with a mostly sea-based economy which survived by exporting their fish, timber and produce, importing metals and other necessities not found there and acting as a midway point for seafarers, making money from the ships and crews that stopped to re-stock, rest or generally just enjoy the views, being a somewhat successful tourist attraction. It has been taken over by Gato of the Gato shipping company, and though outwards the situation seems to be stable, Gato seems to be ruling the country with an iron fist by monopolizing their seas and ports."

' _The man is a bridge builder who wants to go against a man as rich as Gato... This won't be a C-rank as expected, It will probably become at least an A-rank by the end if Gato employs his money to pay shinobi for assassination._ '

"Tora, Oni, Akame."

The three operatives blurred into being kneeling in front of Danzo's throne.

Tora was an animallistic-looking woman, a member of the Inuzuka clan kidnapped as a child and declared as a stillborn before being experimentally bonded to one of the Forest of Death's tigers like the common Inuzuka were to dogs. Her partner and her were raised together since they were young, spending the majority of their time in eachother's company, having human company only during their 'education sessions' and missions. She was a thin-built girl, 16 years of age, 160cm (5'2") of height, dark brown eyes and wild hair in the same colour. Sharp fangs and claws in conjunction with her animal instincts and incredible agility and feline grace made her an extremely dangerous opponent, and one of Danzo's best units, being a high A-rank shinobi, akin to the likes of Hatake Kakashi in skill.

Oni was a 210cm (6'10") light-skinned, bald monster of a man weighing in at 200 kg (440 lbs) of pure muscle. Don't let that fool you, though. Despite the size of his muscles and his mostly silent demeanour, he was neither slow and stiff, nor an idiot. His body was a result of experiments involving supplements, experimental steroids and extreme diets and exercise regimens that kidnapped orphans had been subjected to. Of the 20 at the start, only he survived. That and the training given to him by _ROOT_ gave him a mind as sharp as his teammates, breaking the 'big and dumb' stereotype to pieces. Probably with his own hands.

Akame, well, he was the most special of Danzo's units. He had been abducted at 7 years of age from the uchiha clan during the commotion of the attack of the fox, making the uchiha even more resentful of Uzumaki in the process which factored amazingly into his plans for the boy back then. He had been subjected to stressful, life endangering situations to awaken his sharingan before being conditioned and worked hard into a near perfect tool. The only thing Danzo would have liked more was having a mangekyou sharingan of his own, but the one he was pining for of Uchiha Shisui had already been removed from his corpse when his forces had found it. By whom, he did not know, though he did try to find out. He had, instead, to settle for the series of eyes implanted into his fake arm and having a native user of the sharingan at his disposal. The 17 year old had the usual Uchiha black hair and eyes, but his face was hidden behind a mask which let only the barest hint of his eyes show through their slits. His body was lithe, with him being 170cm (5'7") tall, and weighing at 55kg (121lbs).

Tora, Oni and Akame had been put together as a unit with Akame on command, being Danzo's single most succesful unit with a mission completion rate of 98%.

"The three of you are to follow after Uzumaki's team, subdue him when you find a chance and bring him to me. Do not hurt the rest of his team, Konoha cannot lose Copy Ninja Kakashi or the Sharingan of that Uchiha brat. Move out."

A call of "Hai, Danzo-Sama" in triplicate came right before the three figures vanished.

"Soon, Uzumaki. Very soon..."

 _ **-Elsewhere, with team 7-**_

Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura kept eyeing Naruto, discreetly in Sasuke's case, and openly for the two others. Sakura seemed to be trying to build up the courage to speak. She looked at Kakashi who seemed to be obliviously reading his orange book, before turning back to Naruto, taking a deep breath and opening her mouth.

"Naruto... Why are you wearing a mask?"

The question had been bugging her for a long time, as sometime during their journey, unnoticed by the group, Naruto had pulled up a face mask not unlike Kakashi's, though black in colour. They took a few more steps with the attention still on the blone. After a few minutes of silence Sakura was steaming at being ignore, but as she geared up to screech – action which brought dread to Sasuke's heart – Naruto lazily looked up from his book, his gaze falling on Sakura.

"You say something?"

Sakura started sputtering at that, with Tazuna chuckling and Sasuke letting out a sigh of relief. Kakashi, while outwardly calm and collected while reading his book, was inwardly firing off fireworks ' _You're not the only one that has a mini-me, Gai! And mine only took a few weeks, yours took years! I win!... I wonder if he could be introduced to the pleasures of Icha-Icha and constant lateness..._ '

Those thoughts were interrupted when his gaze unnoticeably travelled towards a puddle of water a good distance in front of them, at the side of the road ' _A puddle Genjutsu in a hot summer day when it hasn't rained in weeks? Idiots._ '

Turning his gaze to the rest of his team, he saw Sasuke eyeing the puddle contemplatively, while Sakura was, unsurprisingly, oblivious as she alternated between eyeing Sasuke lovingly and Naruto angrily. Turning his eye to said blond, he was surprised when he met his gaze, flicked it to the puddle almost imperceptibly and gave a tiny nod. He had noticed.

They kept moving forth, passing by the puddle with no incident. A few steps after that, two men burst up from the puddle. They were geared in all black, with black long-sleeved shirts and black ANBU pants, their faces covered by respirators and their horn-adorned headbands showing a scratched out Kiri design. They each had a spiked gauntled on adjacent arms, with a spiked chain connected to it. They were the demon brothers, B-Rank missing nin from Kiri.

These observations lasted for only instants, as they two dashed at Kakashi, wrapping their chain around him and tugging on it, ripping him to shreds in front of his team "One down".

Sakura screamed loudly as she watched her sensei killed right in front of her, while Tazuna started sweating profusely. As the brothers intended procceeded towards the seemingly unaware Naruto who was still reading his book, a shuriken placed itself in one of the chain's holes, trapping it to a tree and being reinforced by a kunai. The two swored loudly as they released the chain, but before they could do much Sasuke dashed in front of the older one, Gozu, and snapped out a kick to his jaw, staggering him before laying two punches to his chest and another kick to the stomach, finishing him by snapping a final punch to the nose, knocking him unconscious.

His brother's cries of "Gozu!" were silenced when Naruto seemingly materialized behind him, book still in one hand as he chopped Meizu in the neck, knocking him out.

"Nice work children" the voice of Kakashi sounded from the sidelines, his comment irritating both Sasuke and Naruto, though neither of them showed it "You did even better than expected. Now,Tazuna, we need to talk."

Kakashi narrowed his single visible eye at Tazuna "Those were shinobi, and not just were they shinobi, but they were B-ranked nukenin, the demon brothers. Being B-ranks they're not the strongest people, but they're smart enough to know not to attack an A-rank shinobi, so they're not here after me, and none of my students are high-profile enough outside of the village to warrant an assassination attempt, so that leaves you. So, do you have anything to tell me?"

"Well" Naruto drawled out "Isn't it obvious that he lied about the mission rank? I mean, seriously, you're a jounin. If this were a regular C-rank, with only a risk of bandits, no matter how weak the genin looked the client would trust in a Jounin-level shinobi. His comments at the Hokage tower were made out of fear and the expectation that we'd face a situation which would keep you busy enough to be unable to cover for us or him. Other than that he's been constantly looking around and jumping at shadows. Isn't that right, Tazuna-san?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto incredulously, truly impressed at his analytical mind and attention to detail before looking at Tazuna who nodded guiltily.

"I did lie about the mission rank, but I did it for a good reason!"

"Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't we secure the demon brothers before having this talk?" came Naruto, with Kakashi nodding in agreement.

Minutes later, the demon brothers came to only to find themselves bound to a tree with ninja wire, their hands secured away from each other and one another's to stop them from making handsigns.

Kakashi looked at Tazuna "Now that that's done, would you mind telling me why you believe we shouldn't immediately return to the village? After all, knowingly misinforming a village of a mission's rank is grounds for breakage of contract."

Tazuna surprised Kakashi by going down to his kness as he spoke "Please, don't leave me alone, I beg of you! You're my country's only hope!"

Sakura spoke up for the first time in a while, getting over the shock of seemingly watching her teacher "What do you mean, Tazuna-san?"

"Gato."

Everyone turned to look at Naruto who was still absentmindedly reading his book. Kakashi raised his single visible eyebrow questioningly, prompting the blond to close and put away his choice of literature before answering.

"Gato is the president of Gato corp and a shipping magnate, being one of the 50 wealthiest people in the elemental nations, on pair with the smaller Daimiyos. My sources tell me that he isn't simply an entrepeneur, but a criminal. He's part of a criminal syndicate and does a little bit of everything. Prostituition, slavery both common and sexual, arms and drugs dealing, extortion, child labor, you can think it, he does it. His shipping company is used to launder his illegally earned money. He established himself in wave country years back and started agressively buying every single port, fishing business and anything that caught his fancy in the country. He cut off their means of communication with the world at large and started bleeding their country dry, imposing a tyrannical rule onto Wave country. Now the country is so poor that people barely have enough to eat, children live in the streets, medicine and healthcare is all but nonexistant, all the while Gato's men keep extorting the people of the country."

Tazuna gaped at the blond alongside Sasuke and Sakura, while Kakashi narrowed his single eye at him. During Naruto's speech, the demon brothers' eyes flashed with... something... but only Naruto noticed it from where he was standing. ' _That prompts investigation._ '

"Kid, how do you know so much?" Tazuna asked, before Kakashi cut in "While the how is important, what's more important is the why. Why didn't you say any of this when the mission was first assigned?"

Naruto's eyes gained a mix of a hard and venomous edge as he answered, a sneer well pronounced on his unseen face "If I had, Tazuna would have been blown off. His country is in an economical depression, one of the richest people is the one causing it and he is continuously increasing his money. While some might have good intentions, the civillian council would either try to keep neutral in order to make deals with Gato in the future in order to fill their wallets, or worse, take his place. They'd have the shinobi wipe Gato out only to occupy his place in draining the country dry."

"THEY WOULDN'T DO THAT!" came the incredulous screech from Sakura, but any further words were silenced when Naruto's gaze fell on her, his bright, blue eyes burning with an unholy rage as if flames smouldered behind them in his skull. His tone was dark as he spoke.

"Believe me when I say that the civillian council are rotten to the core. I know the depths that they'd lower themselves to out of personal experience."

Kakashi's own eye turned somber at that as he thought about the blonde's childhood, before speaking up "Regardless, we should return to the village. I'm sure that if you explain the situation to Hokage-sama we could work something out, get more experienced Jounin or ANBU squads to do this and work on delayed payments or some such."

Naruto looked at Kakashi before speaking "The hokage might want to help Wave, but the civillian council would try to screw that up. Invoke obscure laws, enact stupid protocols and balls everything up before hiring shinobi of their own to occupy. No, fuck that, there're innocent people in Wave that don't deserve to suffer as they are, and that's why I'll help Tazuna here."

"If we procceed, we will probably encounter Jounin-level shinobi and I might be unable to protect you. Your lives would be in danger."

Naruto waved Kakashi's words off "Ever since we put on this headband, and in my case, ever since I was born, my life has been in danger. If we have to face Jounin-level shinobi then so be it, all we have to do is beat them. No matter what you say, or what you choose to do, I am going to help Tazuna and make Gato pay."

Sasuke spoke up "I say we continue with the mission. An Uchiha never backs down, no matter the odds."

Sakura looked uncertain but she nodded as she spoke "I agree with Sasuke-kun."

Kakashi heaved a sigh before speaking "Ok. We'll go with you, Tazuna, but at the end of the mission we will have to report this to the Hokage."

Tazuna's eyes shone with gratitude "Thank you! Thank you very much!"

"Kakashi-sensei" Naruto started "Before we procceed, would you mind if I interrogated the demon brothers? They might not be working alone, and I want to test out some techniques I picked up from watching Anko and Ibiki working."

The fact that he said that with a bloodthirsty look sent chills down all their spines, while Kakashi just sweatdropped and waved his hand "Go ahead."

The blonde hummed happily as he walked up to the demon brothers, chopping them both in the back of their necks before untying them from the tree and dragging them deep into the woods. 15 minutes later a sorrowful wail was heard by team 7, and 5 minutes after that Naruto emerged with a hard look in his eyes "They were working with Momochi Zabuza and one other. We will probably have an encounter with them in wave country."

Kakashi nodded gravely "Good to know." Before looking back at the path where Naruto had come from "What did you do with them after interrogation?"

"I took care of them."

The finality of his tone sent chills down Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna's spines, while Kakashi simply nodded. And like that, they continued their Journey to wave, to meet their next challenge.

 _ **And... Scene! Sorry for the drought of updates folks, but real life has been squeezing real tight lately. I'll try to update as often as I can, but college-related affairs + family life while getting my life in order... Tough.**_


	6. Chapter 6: Deals with Demons

_**Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, Naruto Shippuden nor anything related. They're the property of Masashi Kishimoto and people whom I don't know. I own only a pair of faded jeans, banana jam and some duct tape.**_

"That... Is one big bridge." came the voice of Naruto in a whisper. Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke silently agreed with the blond from their own seats in the small boat they were aboard, while Tazuna smiled at his own creation.

"Yes, this is my Super bridge that will save Wave from that Super bastard."

Naruto nodded appreciatively "Impressive, even more so considering the fact that you're building it during an economic depression with rampant poverty. To put your all into this... You have just gained my respect, Tazuna."

Tazuna nodded, proud in himself and thankful for the yound shinobi's words. The rest of the journey across the misty waters was made in silence.

"This" the boat's owner started "is as far as I can take you. I don't want to risk Gato finding out about this. Sorry that I couldn't help more, Tazuna."

"Tagashi, you've already helped plenty. I couldn't in my right mind ask more from you, old friend."

The boatsman smiled lightly at Tazuna as the small group left his boat, before turning it back into the misty waters and disappearing.

Team seven had taken a diamond formation, with Naruto in front, Sasuke at the left side, Sakura on the right side and Kakashi in the rear to cover for Tazuna who was in the middle, and protect his team from sneak attacks. He was scoping out the dense treeline as best as he could with his sharingan covered, trying to find any hint of Zabuza or his associate before they could strike when a sudden Kunai being thrown by Naruto into the bushes caused them all to pause and tense up.

"Naruto, what is it?" was the cycloptic Jounin's question as his fingers lingered on the bottom of his tilted forehead protector.

"I sensed movement in the bushes, let me go check."

Sasuke and Sakura had also tensed, both of them trying to split their focus between their teammate and their surroundings, with the light haze of mist making things somewhat difficult. They watched the blond go into the bushes before returning with his kunai and a trembling white rabbit.

Sakura blew her top.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU HAD US ALL WORRIED FOR AN INNOCENT BUNNY THAT YOU ALMOST SCARED TO DEATH!"

As Naruto approached the group, he looked up from the rabbit he was petting directly at Sakura with a lazy stare.

"You say something, Sakura?"

Before the pinkette could react, a cry of "GET DOWN!" by Kakashi as he threw himself and Tazuna to the ground had Sasuke and Sakura throwing themselves down. Naruto, on the other hand, jumped with the bunny on his arms. A loud 'Thwack' from one of the trees had the group looking towards it as they stood back up on firm ground, before a tall, shirtless muscular man wearing camo pants and arm warners, with black-brown, short spiked hair and bandages wrapped around his mouth appeared standing on a massive sword.

Naruto spoke up first "Momochi Zabuza, A missing nin of Kirigakure no Sato for an attempted assassination of the fourth Mizukage Yagura, master of the silent assassination and lauded as the demon of the mist for his performance in the academy graduation exam in the times of the bloody mist and his deeds during his stint at the Kiri assassination squad, and one of the members of the Kirigakure Shinobigatana Nananin shu (seven swordsmen of the mist)..."

Zabuza cocked an eyebrow that he was lacking as he responded "You're pretty well informed for a snot-nosed brat." before turning to the team leader "Ah, here's the real prize. Copy Ninja Kakashi, an A-rank Konoha shinobi who's said to have copied over 1000 jutsu..."

Kakashi stepped in front of his team, a kunai in hand as he spoke "We don't have to do this, Zabuza. You just have to let us pass."

"Well I can't do that, Kakashi. I was hired to kill the bridge builder, so he's not making it out of here alive. The same won't be said of you and your brats if you just turn around and go back the way you came."

Naruto placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder just as he was about to raise his forehead protector, shaking his head lightly "Let me deal with this one."

"No, Naruto. You might be good, but Zabuza is way beyond your level. I will be the one to fight him."

Naruto looked at his sensei as if he were insane "Who said anything about fighting?"

Kakashi blinked once. Twice. Three times. "...If it isn't fighting him, then what are you going to..."

Naruto gave him an eye-smile "You'll see."

Turning back to the bemused missing-nin, Naruto walked forward and spoke in a cheerful tone "Hello, Momochi-chan" getting a tickmark from Zabuza and incredulous looks from his team.

Somewhere far away in the bushes a tiny mix of a giggle and a snort could be heard.

"Kid, I am going to hurt you so much..."

"Ehhh... Calm down, Momochi-chan" Naruto spoke in his relaxed tone before his eyes gained an edge and his tone turned serious "Let's talk business instead. I want to hire you to help us protect Tazuna and assassinate Gato."

'What. The. FUCK!?' were the thoughts shared by everybody listening to the conversation. Zabuza just goggled incredulously for a few seconds before he started laughing uproariously.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, HIRE ME! THAT'S A GOOD ONE, KID!"

"I'm not joking, Zabuza. How much has Gato payed you?"

Zabuza grinned under his bandages before crouching on his blade, his eyes meeting Naruto's as he expected a reaction to the number he'd say "I was promised 5 Million Ryo."

"I'll pay you 10 times that amount."

"WHAT!?" came the simultaneous cries from Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna while Zabuza just stared at the boy in open-mouthed shock - not that they'd know under the bandages - before he managed to regain control of his jaw and speak "You almost had me there for a second, kid. Still, trying to buy your life, even if you're bluffing... Smartest move I've seen today. Only thing smarter would have been your team leaving the old man to me, but oh well."

"I'm not joking, nor bluffing. You said Gato promised you 5 Million Ryo, which means you haven't been paid yet. And him being the sleazeball that he is, I doubt he paid you the standard 50% before the mission to pay the rest on completion. When there is no pre-payment nor any written and signed documents, there is no contract, so taking my offer would do nothing to your employment reputation. I, on the other hand, am willing to pay you half right here, right now, and the other half later. And bonuses if the mission goes better than expected. So, what do you say?"

"You're shitti-"

Naruto interrupted Zabuza by unsealing a briefcase from a tag on his wrist and tossing it at Zabuza who caught it out of reflex. Said man's hands were shaking as he faced the possibility of the kid not being full of crap. Sweat rolled down his forehead at the thoughts of a payoff of 50 million for a mission as simple as an escort. He unlatched the clasps and took hold of the upper part of the metallic case.

On team seven's side, things were as turbulent as Zabuza's thoughts. Sasuke and Sakura were expecting Naruto either to be alongside them, in the backline as their sensei fought the stronger enemy, or spouting off about proving that he's the best candidate for Hokage by beating Zabuza, so seeing him take this approach was a kick to the teeth. Kakashi, on the other hand, was expecting Naruto to try to show his strength like he did during his genin test by fighting Zabuza in a display of cockiness and overconfidence that usually comes with strength without age and wisdom, so seeing him negotiating with the enemy and actually giving him pause with his words scrambled his brains.

In the bushes, Haku wasn't doing any better. She had to actually check her pulse when she heard the amount of money on the table, and seeing the case in Zabuza's hands had her extremely nervous while she waited for him to open it.

Zabuza swallowed the lump in his throat and decided to soldier on, curious about whether or not he'd find the money in the case, hopeful he would, but expecting not to.

"NO FUCKING WAY!"

Which is why he had to swear loudly when he found fat stacks of bills neatly piled inside the case, his eyes bulging out of his head to ridiculous proportions. He looked from the money to Naruto, before looking back at the money, then back at Naruto.

"WHAT THE HELL, KID!? WHERE'D YOU GET THIS KIND OF MONEY!?"

Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna's heads snapped to Naruto so fast one would swear they got whiplash, incredulity on their faces as Zabuza actually confirmed the existance of the money. Naruto just shrugged non-commitaly in response.

After gathering himself, Zabuza closed the briefcase and eyed Naruto seriously "Well, the money is real kid. But What guarantee do you have that I won't just kill you and take your money, then kill the bridge builder? I'd be netting 5 Million more than you're paying."

Team seven minus Naruto tensed at that, and Kakashi's hand found his forehead protector again. Sasuke gripped his Kunai tightly, and Sakura gulped while she forced her arm to get steady.

"The fact that I have information that could lead to the defeat of Yagura for one."

As he said those words, Zabuza flooded the field with the entirety of his killing intent, causing Tazuna and Sakura to faint, Sasuke to turn into a twitching, blubbering mess incapable of even lifting a finger. Kakashi jumped beside Naruto and lifted his headband, but was surprised by the blond's lack of reaction, as if he weren't even feeling the KI.

"Kid... What the hell do you know about Yagura? How did you even know to say that name to me? Did he send you here?"

As Zabuza's hand reached the handle of his blade, the Kubikirihocho, Naruto answered.

"No, Yagura didn't send me. I knew to say that name because you were declared a missing nin for trying to kill him. And I will tell you what I know if you fulfill the contract I'm proposing to you. That is non-negotiable."

Zabuza locked gazes with Naruto while still releasing KI to the point that even Haku in the bushes was having a hard time breathing, but Naruto was unnafected and unwavering. He was holding his gaze unflinchingly when many a more experienced nin faltered. His KI disappeared altogether as he gave Naruto a curt nod, allowing Sasuke to finally become a functional human being again and Haku to stop her slightly shaking arm.

Zabuza hopped off of the tree and approached Kakashi and Naruto, the copy ninja still holding tightly onto his protector as the eyebrowless missing nin walked towards them step by step before stopping in front of Naruto, his hand held out for a handshake. Naruto had his left hand still lazily inside his pocket while his right hand went to meet Zabuza's before they shook on it.

"Haku, come on out. We're working for them now."

A masked figure in a blue long-sleeved shirt and kakhi pants with ninja sandals on it's feet and it's hair done into a single bun jumped from the trees to stand in front of Zabuza, it's muffled voice coming from behind the mask "Yes, Zabuza-sama"

Zabuza sighed heavily before speaking to the figure "Haku, we're working for them now, so please for all that's holy take off that mask. I've told you plenty a time that it's ridiculous."

Haku had a tickmark on her forehead before she pulled off the mask, speaking in a chiding tone "And it's ridiculousness saved us more than once. Remember Iwa? Suna? That port city, Karke? And don't get me started on the Omelette incid-"

"I get it! I get it!... Now knock it off, you promised you'd never mention that ever again. That was a clusterfuck if I ever saw one..."

As Haku and Zabuza talked with Kakashi and Naruto watching in amusement, Sasuke roused Sakura and Tazuna and informed them of the happenings, causing Sakura's brain to freeze before going into reboot mode and Tazuna to swear and promise to drink himself stupid at the first occasion to do so.

As they grouped up to procceed towards Tazuna's house, Kakashi sternly looked at Naruto "Naruto, that last moment where you shook his hand... That was unwise. He might be working with us for now, but he might have simply been tricking you. To let your guard down like that... I expected more from you."

Naruto pulled his left hand out of his pocket, revealing his hand gripping the handle of a Kunai as he gave Kakashi a lazy look "You say something, Sensei?"

Kakashi openly gaped at Naruto, and though the mask covered his face, the blond noticed and took pleasure in it. Leaving the masked jounin behind once again trying and failing to gauge his skill level, he decided to trot up to Zabuza and Haku and get to know them better.

"Hey Zabuza, got a request to make."

"Go ahead, kid."

"Mind including some kenjutsu lessons in the deal? I'm fairly good at it for the most part, but I've got no skill with heavy blades and you seem to be the go-to guy at it. I mean, of the seven swordsmen heavy sword users, only you and Kisame are still alive, and I don't fancy asking sharkface for lessons. Might cost me an arm and a leg, literally."

Haku giggled at Naruto's joke while Zabuza's eyebrowless brows rose "You even know about the status of the seven swordsmen and are well informed about Kisame. You're impressing me more and more, so sure, I'll help you with your kenjutsu. By the way, you said your information on Yagura was _one_ of the reasons why I wouldn't just take the money, that implies there being more."

"Yup. First, I'm plenty strong so I don't think you'd be able to beat me without at least trading your life for it." Zabuza's brow twitched, but remembering the fact that the kid wasn't even fazed by his maximum output of KI gave at least a _bit_ of credence to his claim. "But it wouldn't even have to get that far. Kakashi would probably take you and I'd fight Haku. Even if Kakashi didn't beat you, you'd get weakened enough for me to do so, and while I did I'd throw pinky and broody mcbroodpants her way. Cannon fodder, y'know."

Zabuza was frankly impressed at the kid's ruthlessness, while Haku frowned "You'd sacrifice your own precious people?"

Naruto's head snapped towards Haku so fast that you'd swear he gave himself a concussion, but when his eyes met Haku's they burned with such an intensity that it was unnerving. Even Zabuza squirmed lightly at that look, not that he'd admit it under torture "I would _never_ sacrifice my precious people. I know enough about innocent sacrifices to submit my own loved ones to the same fate."

The heartfelt intensity behind his words turned Haku's frown into a small smile, before they turned into a thoughtful look. Naruto answered before he could ask "In this team, the only one I'd say is precious to me is Kakashi. Other than him, there's the rest. I'd cover their back if needed, we are a team after all and that's our directive, but I wouldn't go as far as say they're precious to me."

The mood relaxed a bit after that, and Naruto turned back to Zabuza as he spoke "Well, the last reason why you wouldn't be able to just run with the money is that the 25 million you have on you are rigged. Each of the individual bills has an exploding seal on it, all of them different in very slight ways so that breaking one doesn't mean breaking them all, and the keys to each of those seals are in the other 25 million ryo. If I were to die or use a specific string of handsigns they would detonate with enough force to level a small town. There wouldn't be enough of you to be considered dust."

At that last statement the entire group turned an incredulous look at Naruto while the blond pulled his book on fuuinjutsu from his back pouch and went back to reading it. Zabuza blinked owlishly before speaking "Damn, kid, that's fucking terrifying. You're the real deal." before muttering in a low tone " _Kinda glad I didn't fight you now._ "

Naruto just shrugged before answering "In the shinobi lifestyle you start off in the deep end. There are no baby steps."

And with those closing words they made their way towards Tazuna's home, unaware of the three pairs of human eyes, and one pair of animal eyes watching them before vanishing.

 _ **DONE! I managed to get this one out relatively quickly, and I'm actually proud of it. As always, I hope reading this wasn't a waste of your time. Please leave a Review about your thoughts on what I did well, what I could improve on and just your general thoughts on the story itself. Ja ne!**_


	7. Chapter 7: Hits and misses

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is property of Masashi Kishimoto and a lot of other people who are not me. I own only a toothpick, some lime juice, a catheter and a pair of slippers. Enjoy!**

"You're not gonna beat me, brat!" came the growl from Momochi Zabuza. He was completely focused and releasing not a small amount of malice. On the sideline, Kakashi and Haku each paid full attention to their conflict, hoping for the best.

"I already have, Zabuza."

Naruto's voice oozed confidence, and more than just a bit of smugness as he spoke. His grip on the flow of the conflict was undeniable. He had total advantage here.

"Then show me what you've got!"

Naruto gave a foxy grin as he spoke "Royal. Flush."

"MOTHERFUCKER! HOW! 12 FUCKING GAMES AND YOU HAVEN'T LOST ONCE!"

Naruto just shrugged as he put down his cards, pulling all the chips on the table to his side while Zabuza grumped "I guess it's Karmic compensation. The good comes to offset the bad, and all that."

Zabuza grumbled as he put down his own hands, showing a pair of two's and three three's. Haku giggleed at her master's predicament while Kakashi focused back on his little orange book.

It's been 2 days since Team 7 + Zabuza and Haku arrived at Tazuna's residence and were greeted warmly by Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, and not so warmly by Inari, his grandson. Team 7 simply ignored the boy's depressive, emo ways as Naruto and Kakashi had practice with Sasuke, and Sakura was unaware of anything related to the whiny bit-... tragic avenger. Sasuke was too absorbed into his thoughts of revenge to notice Inari, and the lack of attention when he so blatantly makes himself into a beacon of unhappiness and misery was starting to grate on his nerves.

No matter how much he whined, and moped, and glared, the shinobi never paid attention to him. Well, that was going to change, and soon! After all, misery loves company, right?

 ***SLAM!***

That's why he slammed the door as he made his way into the kitchen. Basically every pair of eyes was on him except for the blonde masked guy who seemed to be ignorant to his presence, and that just made it worse. It meant that the blonde one was deliberatly ignoring him!

"You're all stupid! I don't know why you even try, when in the end Gato is just going to kill you all!"

People's reactions to that were varied. Tazuna and Tsunami gave resigned sighs, already used to the routine, Haku was saddened to see a child lose hope to this degree, as was Kakashi though he didn't show it, Sakura was puzzled by the source of his behaviour, and Sasuke just scoffed, disregarding the boy's words. Zabuza, on the other hand, was more than just a bit angry. Saying that they'd all die to the midget was disparaging his skills to the extreme! Before anyone could say anything else, though, Inari continued.

"You may pretend not to listen, blondie, but the stupid ones like you are the ones that die first!"

Kakashi, Zabuza, Haku, Tazuna and even Sasuke and Sakura started edging away from Naruto, still not having forgotten his performance with the demon brothers, or his explosive money trick. He was dangerous, and being close to him when he's mad is harmful for your health.

Said blonde lazily turned towards Inari, before looking at Tsunami, then looking back at Inari "You say something kid?"

A vein started throbbing on Inari's forehead at that moment "DON'T IGNORE ME YOU DUMBASS! YOU'RE PROBABLY THE WEAKEST ONE HERE ANYWAY, SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE FIRST!"

Naruto eye-smiled at Inari appologetically "Sorry, but I didn't get any of that. I don't speak Whiny bitch. I'd ask Sasuke to translate, but the result would be the same, and asking Sakura to translate would cause me permanent hearing damage."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH GOD THIS IS PRECIOUS!"

Zabuza's anger was forgotten at that, the blond kid really was a funny one!

Soon the laughter spread, with Haku giggling lightly, Kakashi chuckling and even Sasuke cracking a smirk. Of course, Sasuke smirking sent Sakura swooning and into a spiral of fantasy, but she's as useful that way as she is every other day, which means not at all.

Inari was about to speak again when Naruto cut him off "So, Zabuza, we should start planning Gato's takedown. Even if we guard Tazuna until the bruidge is built, as long as Gato is in circulation then things won't change. We need information, so you're going to have to tell us everything you know about him. You and Haku should make up some excuse to stall him and give us the time to prepare, make a map of his headquartes if possible. While my team protects Tazuna, I'll be posting clones on guard duty for Tsunami, Inari and the house itself. I'll hide myself with a transformation and try to get info on Gato by acting like a thug looking for a good time and quick cash at the customary hangouts for Gato's men. As soon as we have all the information possible, we can assault Gato's HQ and recover Wave's money, while taking care of the thug problem. How does that sound?"

Zabuza scratched his head lightly "That sounds pretty much the best plan for the situation, but... Isn't the jonin usually the one creating schedules and strategizing?"

"Well" Naruto started sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head "I might have jumped the Kunai a bit there, but I'm sure that if he disagreed at any moment, Kakashi-sensei would speak up. Plus, I was the one that Hired you, not team 7, so even if anyone else said differently, it's my instructions that you have to follow."

Kakashi nodded lightly at that, while Sasuke was silently impressed with the plan. ' _Maybe the Dobe won't slow me down as much as I thought he would_ '.

It seems Sasuke already forgot the results of their genin test.

Sakura, however, couldn't be stupid in a silence "SASUKE-KUN SHOULD BE THE ONE GIVING ORDERS! HIS PLANS WOULD PROBABLY BE FLAWLESS, AND BETTER THAN NARUTO-BAKA'S!"

Naruto completely disregarded Sakura's words, still talking to Zabuza "Well, you promised me sword lessons so we should go and do that!"

Zabuza shrugged and, taking a hold of his sword, made his way outside. Naruto, Haku and Kakashi followed suit, while Sasuke decided that he had something better to do than watch the Dobe get the crap kicked out of him and fail pitifully at swinging a sword, and Sakura decided that her time was best spent watching Sasuke.

 _ **-**_ **3 hours later-**

The people inside Tazuna's home could hear voices speaking outside, but they couldn't understand what was being said. Sasuke and Sakura tensed, going for their gear, only to see the rest of the group leisurely making their way into the house. Naruto and Zabuza were both sweaty and covered in cuts and gashes while talking animatedly in a friendly manner. Kakashi was looking at his book like always, but his eye would occasionally trail towards Naruto before going back down, and Haku's gaze was fixed on Naruto, eyes wide.

Zabuza put down his sword, wiping some sweat off his forehead as he spoke "Know a bit of Kenjutsu my ass, Kid. Haven't had this much trouble, or fun, in a swordfight ever since I left the seven swordsmen."

Naruto eye-smiled at Zabuza before answering "You flatter me, Zabuza!"

The bandaged man simply shook his head before speaking "I'm serious, kid. Your technique in general is pretty good, amazing even considered your age. And that last parry that you converted into a counter was impressive. It shows an instinct for swordsmanship, and for battle in general, that distinguishes the great shinobi from the dead ones. I honestly didn't think that Konoha had talent of this level in the weapon arts. Currently the supposed best of leaf are Gekko Hayate and Uzuki Yugao, the mooncutter duo!"

"So you think I'll grow as skillful as Hayate and Yugao-nee?"

"Hell no, kid. I'm saying that you'll surpass them by a large margin. Honestly, the last time I saw a proper Kenjutsu user from leaf was in the battle of Shingashi bridge. The entirety of the seven swordsmen fought the Red Death of Konoha."

Everybody's interest perked up at that, and Haku interjected "You never told me about that."

Zabuza scratched his cheek as he spoke "I had a reason not to. We kind of got the crapped kicked out of us singlehandedly by her. Me, Akebino, Ameyuri, Kuriarare, Mangetsu, Jinpachi and Fuguki got our asses handed to us in the most single-sided battle I've ever fought. We went into the fight thinking that we'd win. Back then we were self-absorbed and arrogant. Mangetsu, specifically, thought that he was unbeatable because of his skills with the seven swords, so imagine how confident we were in a 7 on 1 fight."

At this point, everybody was listening raptly as Zabuza reminisced.

"We wanted to make things more fun, so we decided to go at her one at a time, give the others chances to play with the food, but she told us to go at her at once because she _at least wanted a light workout_. We got pretty mad at that, our egos the size they were. Even Kuriarare, the calmest of us, got aggravated. We struck and she beat the hell out of us. It was like seven toddlers with sticks trying to fight a sword-wielding titan. The only reason I'm here right now is because she let us go on a whim. Told us to grow up and get stronger so that next time we met she actually had some fun. After that loss, the lot of us started training until we bled and then we went beyond that. She was the inspiration for Ringo, and the reason why she came to be the strongest member of the 7 swordsmen, though I personally think I can still beat her in a one on one. Last rumor I heard said that she died on the night of the Kyuubi's attack, but nothing more."

Kakashi focused on Naruto at that moment, trying to discern whether he already knew or not, but he couldn't see any signs one way or the other. Zabuza sighed lightly.

"But enough reminiscing from an old man. What I mean to say, kid, is that you can get to her level if you keep growing stronger."

Sasuke scoffed derisively at that "The dobe, growing as strong as an S-rank? I highly doubt it. That classification is reserved for the elites, like..."

Naruto cut in with a droll tone "Like Uchiha Itachi, for example?"

Sasuke's head turned to Naruto so fast that he got whiplash, and Kakashi got ready to get between any possible fights. Sasuke asked in low, anger filled tone "What did you say, Dobe?"

"I said that, based on your theory of shinobi ranks, then Uchiha Itachi as an S-rank is an elite. Given the fact that he was given the rank at 13 then he's probably the elite of elites, no?"

Sasuke's hand was reaching for his shuriken pouch when he felt a hand grabbing his wrist and keeping it from reaching. Looking up he saw the visage of his team leader and scowled at him "Let me go Kakashi, I'll teach the dobe a lesson!"

Zabuza shook his head in disappointment, as did Haku, while Kakashi sighed before speaking "Sasuke, look under the table."

The uchiha scowled and did as his teacher instructed only to find a Kunai embedded on his chair, millimiters away from his crotch. He looked up in wide-eyed surprise only to meet Naruto's sharp, cold gaze.

"I may be mature and ignore most of your jibes and such, but even my patience has limits. If you keep trying to fuck with me, I _**will hurt you**_. That goes for pinkie over there as well."

Everybody was tense at that moment before Sasuke huffed and made his way to the room afforded to them by Tsunami. Naruto's cold gaze snapped towards Sakura when she was gearing up to screech, causing her to freeze up "Be quiet. You are dead weight. The most useless shinobi in the program. Even academy students could take your place and pull their weight better than you, so until you become an actually useful team member then I don't want to hear you debasing or criticizing me. The same warning that I gave to duckass is extended to you. Do not try me, Haruno."

Naruto sighed before making his way outside "I'll be training a bit on that clearing we found."

Sakura was speechless with tears brimming in her eyes, Zabuza was pensive about the whole thing, Kakashi was resigned to working with the clusterfuck he called a team and Haku, Tazuna and Tsunami were worried with Naruto.

 **At the clearing -**

Naruto sighed again. Two days cooped up with his team and he was already gearing to tear off their throats. The worst part was that he shouldn't have lost his patience like that. He knew he was better than them in terms of control. In the world of shinobi, loss of control leads to loss of life, and he cherished his vitality very much, thank you.

He gave one of the bushes a sideways look, his hand curling slightly towards his arm. A rustling in the vegetation behind him had him turning towards it, only to find Haku walking towards him, giving him a worried look. "Are you okay, Naruto-san?"

Naruto sighed as he relaxed "Somewhat. I'm better than in there, that's for sure."

"That was a pretty bad blowup. Or, as close as someone of your temperament would get to a blowup, as far as I know. Want to talk about it?"

The masked blonde looked upwards and heaved another heavy sigh before speaking "I'm sick of it. Being underestimated and treated like an idiot when you portray yourself as one, is one thing. But when the people who have witnessed and know what you're capable ofkeep writing you off like that just because they feel like they can..."

Haku sat down on the grass "Sounds like there's a story behind that."

"Yeah. Back in Konoha, I'm not exactly the most liked person, for reasons completely out of my control. They turned me into the blight of their society, tried their best to keep me lonely, miserable and to stifle my growth. If they saw my true potential, they'd probably have tried to kill me. It took me a while to figure this out, but luckily when I did do my best they were blinded by their own hatred to the point of not noticing it. From then on I decided to play the idiot they wanted me to be. But now that I'm not playing the fool, there are those that keep treating me as if I were. That is both insulting and infuriating."

Haku sighed before giving Naruto a sad smile "I know how you feel. I was also hated for something out of my control ever since I've been small. I used to live in Kiri, and bloodline holders weren't very much liked. I accidentally discovered mine and showed it to my mother, and she told me to not show it to anyone else ever, but it was too late." Her eyes glazed over lightly as she was immersed in her memories "My father, my sweet, loving, doting father saw me use my abilities. He killed my mother in front of me, and tried to kill me too, and I accidentally killed him in self defence. Zabuza-sama saved me from a life of loneliness and despair, but... Those memories still remain."

"A bloodline holder? Danzo-sama shall appreciate you as well."

The moment the emotionless voice spoke, various things happened at once. Haku's eyes widened as she hadn't felt the source at all, even as it spoke, Naruto's eyes narrowed and his hand curved and the bushes rustled. In an instant, a blur flew towards Haku, a metallic glint shining in the dull moonlight. Naruto reacted instantly, his body turning around towards the source of the blur, Haku behind his back and the sound of clanging metal could be heard.

Naruto had unsealed his sword, a deadly piece of work with a 4 foot long blade, black in colour due to it's source metal, with a red design along the edge in the shape of wave-live curves. Those waves were connected to a red design of a chinese dragon wrapped around the 1 ½ handle, it's cloth in the same black. The sword's guard was in the form of a five-point star, each of the points representing one of the elemental chakra natures, and it was ornamented with a strap connected to a fuuinjutsu tag.

Due to the suddeness of the attack Naruto couldn't block it, only managing to deflect it at the cost of taking a full swipe at left eye, leaving him probably blind and with a long gash along it. Acting as if he didn't even feel the slash, Naruto performed a half tiger seal with his free hand and breathed out a large fireball that was rapidly flying towards his attacker. Two calls of " **Water style: Water Torrent Technique** " managed to block the hastily used fireball, but just barely, Creating a massive curtain of steam. One of the figures used a basic wind jutsu to dispell the mist, only for Naruto and Haku come up missing.

"Tora. Oni. I found your performance sub-optimal. Had the two of you intervened earlier, Uzumaki and his companion would not have eluded us."

Tora sniffed at the air before responding in the same emotionless tone, disregarding her team leader's earlier words completely "The steam curtain destroyed any chances of me tracking their scent."

Oni dropped in beside Akame "Now that he's been attacked, Uzumaki will be more cautious and probably never be out of sight of Hatake and Momochi. We cannot fail lord Danzo, so we will have to find a different plan. In case we have to fight head-to-head, one of each of us keeps Hatake and Momochi busy while the last one deals with Uzumaki. Is this a satisfying strategem?"

Akame and Tora nodded, before the three of them covered their tracks and disappeared.

- **Tazuna's home –**

"Hatake-san! Zabuza-sama! Naruto-kun is injured!"

Those cries caused instant alarm. Everybody made their ways to the living room to find Naruto's left eye covered in a clean, vertical slash, blood flowing from the wound and covering his facemask. While they were all alarmed at this, Naruto himself seemed oddly calm about this.

Kakashi spoke up first, as Haku patched up the blonde "Naruto, what happened? We felt a large chakra emission from you, but we thought you were just training or blowing off some steam."

Naruto sighed as he leaned back into the couch, wiping some blood off the bridge of his nose as he spoke "We were attacked. I was being followed by three people for a while, but before I could engage Haku showed up. I wanted to keep her away from the fight so I pretended not to know, since I expected her to return here without me but when she mentioned her bloodline they gained an interest in her. If the guy aimed at me, he'd probably be ribbons by now, but the bastard went straight for Haku, and... Well, now I have more in common with you than just the mask and book!" Naruto said with an eye smile from his remaining eye, getting a sweatdrop from everyone.

Sakura was the one to speak, horrified at the prospect of losing her vision like that "How can you be so nonchalant about losing your eye?"

"Getting hurts is in the job description. In any serious mission, any shinobi has a probability of losing something. Be it an eye, a finger, a limb, It's just how things are" he said before shrugging "Plus, the fact that I know I'll get to rip the bastard that did this to me and his companions appart by the end of the week really makes things easier. They forgot one of the main mandates of the Shinobi world, after all."

Sakura leaned in curiously "And what would that be?"

Naruto chuckled maliciously, his eye shining dangerously as he spoke " _ **You don't fuck with an Uzumaki.**_ "

Zabuza grinned at the sheer bloodthirst coming off of Naruto at that moment "Kid, I like you more and more! You're making things pretty interesting for me." Before scratching his chin pensively "Now that I think about it, the name Uzumaki reminds me of something, no, someone... It was a she, and it was someone important."

Kakashi cut in at that moment, not wanting Naruto to learn more than he was ready to – or at least he told himself "Well, this was a pretty close call. From now on, we'll be split in two groups. Me and Zabuza will be with one of the groups at all time, which means that You'll have to forgo your information gathering mission, Naruto."

"Well" the blonde drawled "I could always use the shadow clones. Y'know, solid clones which are capable of transformations and actually interacting with the world?"

"Ah" the jonin said while sheepishly scratching his head "Completely forgot about that ability of yours. So, How's it feel having a 0/20 vision?"

"About as well as constantly reading those perverted books of yours but never getting laid, a bit of an inconvenience but you get used to it."

Kakashi chuckled lightly before the group made their way to bed, with the copy Nin keeping guard for the night. As soon as he knew he was alone, he sighed and asked himself "How much do you truly know, Naruto?"

 **Done! Hope this is a good chapter, sorry my updates are so irregular but life is not exactly easy! Plus, inspiration is a fickle mistress. Anyways, please leave a review saying whether you enjoyed it, if the story was good or bad, where it could be better and even suggestions for the plot. I may or may not take them into account and add them to the story based on how well they'd mesh with my own views and expectations of the story itself. Ja ne!**


	8. Chapter 8: The past in perspective

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and other people whom I know nothing about. I own only a can of cool whip, a pair of headphones, a cucumber and some vaseline.**

 _ **"KUCHYIOSE: EDO TENSEI! (**_ _Summoning: Impure world ressurection)"_

 _A thick miasma, tinged with the scent of death and decay, spread through a large sector of the forest of death. A figure watched with excitment and trepidation as a pair of coffins slowly rose from the ground, displacing dirt and grass alike. The animals felt the instinctual fear of death and kept as far away from that zone as possible, but that would help with his goals._

 _The lids of the coffins unlatched with a wooden cracking sound and the figure instantly went through a slew of handsigns, activating a chakra suppression barrier, which was a necessity given what he was doing._

 _Plumes of smoke were flowing out of the coffins, obscuring the view, but a pair of voices emerged from them - alongside a massive feeling of crushing pressure._

 _"Oh, Tobirama. It seems we've been brought back through the use of that technique of yours" Came the voice of Senju Hashirama, one of the founders, and first Hokage, of the Village of Konoha, the defeater of Uchiha Madara, strongest shinobi in history and the first to ever achieve the title of God of Shinobi after the Sage of The Six Paths. He wore a red armor which covered his torso in an uniform manner, and his shoulders and thighs through the mean of interconnected plates. He wore a black suit underneath, the same colour as his back-long Hair. He spoke casually, as if the concept of being called from death were nothing but a minor inconvenience, but with how strong he was, it might have just been._

 _"Indeed, brother. And our summoner seems to be an odd one."_

 _Said summoner watched both men eagerly, his cerulean blue eyes lighting up in admiration. His blonde hair, as always, was spiked, his skin was tan and his face sported three whisker marks on each cheek. It was an 8 year old Naruto Uzumaki._

 _Tobirama continued speaking "I would like to know how a child came upon the knowledge of such a dangerous, and forbidden, technique. And for what purpose he would have used it."_

 _Naruto steeled himself before speaking, which was difficult seen as simply being next to the two men had caused many older than him to collapse or be rendered mute "I saw the technique in the forbidden scroll."_

 _"Hmm" Hashirama sounded, while Tobirama watched the child intently. "You are awfully young, child, to have the understanding, much less the power to perform a technique of this caliber. Or, at least it would seem like it, but since we're here, I'm not so sure."_

 _Tobirama spoke up next "Still, you have stolen jutsu, forbidden jutsu, based on human sacrifice, from the village of Konoha and you used it to summon the first two Hokage? That decision seems... Unwise."_

 _The moment he said unwise, his right pinky twitched, and the pressure and sheer killing intent that filled the clearing they were in sent Naruto to his knees. His breathing was labored, and consisted of short, desperate gulps interspersed with coughs. Tears instinctually sprang to his eyes, and he was quivering, but Naruto promised he would not cry again. He would not be weak again. He did things with a purpose, and this reaction from the Nidaime was expected. In response he retaliated by pushing out as much Chakra and killing intent of his own that he could, slightly easing his burden and allowing him to breathe normally, though just barely._

 _Tobirama's eyebrow raised in surprise, he could say he was honestly impressed with this child, but it was possibly a traitor. A powerful one at that. He had to be taken down for the good of the village. As his wrist twitched..._

 _"Tobirama,_ _ **drop that finger of yours**_ _."_

 _Hashirama's own Aura flared to life, and though it was directed towards his brother and supposed to quell his, it didn't make things easier for Naruto. It only showed him the difference between true shinobi, and the pitiful things of the present._

 _Hashirama and Tobirama locked gazes for a few tense seconds, seemingly having a conversation before Tobirama huffed and dropped his finger, causing his killer intent to disappear completely. Hashirama retracted his own, before turning to Naruto and giving him a kind smile._

 _"Tell us your story, child. What lead you to copying this technique from the scroll, what lead you to be this strong, what lead you to revive us."_

 _Naruto shakily stood up, his eyes darkening slightly as he prepared to speak, which was noticed by both Hashirama and Tobirama, eliciting an internal frown from the god of shinobi. Children were not supposed to have this type of darkness._

 _"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Kitsune..."_

 **\- Wave Country -**

Naruto woke up with a start. He hadn't had that dream, well, memory really, in quite a long time. Perhaps it was the loss of his eye, who knows. After a quick shower he made his way downstairs to find everybody having breakfast. All eyes turned to him, focused directly on his missing eye. Inari pointed at him and spoke in a victorious, yet still somber tone "See! You tried to defy Gato, and lost your eye! If you keep trying, you'll lose your lives!"

Naruto ignored Inari, sitting down on an empty chair and getting himself some food to eat. The table was silent and tense as each person had their own set of thoughts.

Haku was blaming herself for Naruto getting hurt.

Kakashi was blaming himself for not being there to protect Naruto, despite being his sensei.

Sakura was scared, terrified even of suffering a fate similar to Naruto based on what he said the previous night.

Sasuke was worried. He knew Naruto was no pushover, he was present during the genin exam. He pushed Kakashi and almost killed him a handful of times, is extremely stealthy, devious and cunning. An enemy that forced him to retreat would, currently, kill him easily, as much as it hurt him to admit it.

Zabuza was thinking about the best way to deal with Gato without making him suspicious or spillling the beans.

A metaphorical raincloud was hanging over the table, and it was making Tazuna and Tsunami nervous.

"Didn't you hear me? I said you were gonna die!"

Naruto ignored him, leisurely enjoying his fried fish .

"I knew you were stupid, but I didn't think you were-"

"Shut up, kid. I'm Uzumaki fucking Naruto, and no half-pint is going to be the death of me. This might sound cruel towards Wave and for that I apologize, but Gato is simply a big fish in a small pond. If he tried to pull this kind of shit somewhere else he'd already be dead, and I'm going to make sure that happens."

Inari slammed both hands on the table as he spoke "Small pond? You have no idea what you're talking about! Living your cushy, comfortable lives back in your villages, you don't know what suffering is!"

Naruto's lazily half-lidded eye snapped open and focused fully on Inari. He started giggling, which turned into chuckling before turning into full blown laugher.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! DON'T KNOW SUFFER- OH GOD KID YOU'RE HILARIOUS!"

Just as fast as it came, his laughter passed, leaving only a cold, angry look in his eye, his tone glacial "Let me tell you the story of a little blond boy. Said blonde lived in a prosperous village, with good commerce, enough resources, and for all intents and purposes one of the strongest and wealthiest in the world, yet he lived in poverty. He was orphaned at birth and placed in an orphanage. The caretakers ignored and abused him as much as they possibly could, the older children were cruel towards him because they never got in trouble with the caretakers. Said child barely got enough to eat, had to teach himself to write, read and count and to survive. He was kicked out of the orphanage at 5 and told to fend for himself, living an entire year on the streets, rummaging through trash just get a proper meal every two days. The villagers which were usually kind and friendly turned scornful and cold as soon as he appeared. Children were told not to play with him, taught to hate him. After one year in the streets, the person who was supposed to protect him finally found the time to do something for him. Gave him an appartment, leaving a 6 year old fending for himself living alone."

The more he spoke, the colder his tone got. Haku had tears in her eyes, Kakashi's eye was downcast in sorrow, and not a small amount of regret. Zabuza was angry, Sasuke surprised, Tsunami and Tazuna horrified at the tale, and Sakura was incredulous.

"Said 6 year old had to deal with people constantly defacing his appartment, breaking in to destroy his things, being overcharged or straight up denied access to stores, and the occasional life-threatening beating. He was enrolled in the shinobi academy a few years later where the majority of the instructors did their best to keep him from succeeding, stunting and hindering his growth. Finding any possible reason, real or otherwise, to have him leave class just before something important was taught, always having his questions ignored, being given the worst class materials possible, and even being given fake lessons just as further sabotage. Does this child not know suffering?"

Inari was static, tears filling his eyes as he heard the tale.

"Believe me, it does. But did it give up? Become a whiny bitch, hung up on the negatives of life, doing their best to spread misery to others, disregarding a loving parent and grandparent? No. This child endured. This child worked hard, and smart. It hid it's potential, acted stupid, made sure he was seen as a clown, a laughing stock, all the while getting as strong, and as smart as it could. And nowadays, this child is trying to help others so they don't have to live the same life of suffering as he did, but has to deal with exactly the type of people he hates the most, those who take things for granted. So please, Inari, always remember. No matter how bad things are for you, there's always someone worse than you. If that person doesn't give up, then what right do you have to?"

Before anyone could say anything else, Naruto stood up from the table "I'll be collecting info on Gato. Later." before disappearing in a sunshin.

Sakura turned to her teacher "Kakashi-sensei, Naruto was lying, right? There's no way the people in Konoha are that evil! Plus, no one can live like that and act dumb and happy for years straight, it's impossible!"

Kakashi sighed before answering "No, Sakura. Unfortunately everything he said was the absolute truth."

That declaration got sobs from Tsunami and Haku, Zabuza was shaking in rage at the level of cruelty a child had been subjected to, Sasuke was pensive and Inari ran away in tears, locking himself in his room.

 **\- Flashback -**

 _"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."_

 _Hashirama and Tobirama's eyes widened at that, but Hashirama spoke first "A blond haired Uzumaki? Are you Tsunade-chan's child? Grandchild?"_

 _"No, Hashirama-sama. My parents were Uzumaki Kushina, second Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and... Namizake Minato, fourth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."_

 _Tobirama spoke up at that "Fourth? Does that mean that Sarutobi..."_

 _"No, he's still alive, and currently in charge. Well, somewhat."_

 _Hashirama hmm'ed before Tobirama spoke "What do you mean? If there's a fourth, then why is the third in service? Explain."_

 _"When I was born, the fox got free from my mother. My father sacrificed himself to seal the fox in me, but both of them died and asked for me to be seen as a hero that protects the village. The third decided that the best course of action was to tell everybody that the same thing that devastaded much of the village and killed thousands was sealed in a defenseless, orphaned child, while hiding my heritage out of fear of my parent's enemies."_

 _Hashirama winced while Tobirama scowled at that "Let me guess, things didn't go quite as your father expected."_

 _Naruto's eyes went darker at that "You could say that, yes."_

 _Hashirama sighed "Kushi-chan's own child..."_

 _Tobirama turned towards Hashirama "Kushi-chan?"_

 _"Yes, me and Mito's grand-niece. She was Itama-otouto's daughter, with Uzumaki Kikyo, Mito's younger sister."_

 _"Itama had children? Why wasn't I made aware of this?"_

 _Hashirama sighed heavily at that "The Uchiha were aiming for him heavily. He wanted to protect his love and child, and he did by keeping it a secret from all but the head of the Senju clan at the time, me. Since he died at the hands of the Uchiha, it seems that his fears were justified" before his gaze returned to Naruto and he sighed again "Me and Mito's own blood, son of a former Hokage, mistreated by the villagers because of their blind hatred and the bad choices of the third. I am disappointed in Saru, and in the village itself, if they did what I think they did to a child. Any child."_

 _Tobirama gave Naruto a dangerous look "So, you seek revenge on the village, then?"_

 _Naruto shook his head "No, not at all. I wish to make my own village, where everybody is family. Where no one has to live like me, in misery and suffering, where help is always a door away and where hatred and ignorance do not dictate people's actions. In order to do that, I must become strong, so that I may protect my ideals, my precious people, and later, my village."_

 _Naruto sat in Seiza before bowing deeply, his forehead touching the ground "So please teach me, Grand-uncle Hashirama, Great-uncle Tobirama..."_

 **\- Flashback End -**

Naruto had transformed himself into a 6' tall man, long, black hair hanging limply from his scalp, an eyepatch on his left eye and a small blade at his side. His clothes were somewhat ratty, consisting of a worn and fraying dull green jacket, a pair of blue pants and straw sandals. He made his way into a dimly lit bar, filled with the smells of drink and smoke, the sounds of rowdy conversation and fighting reaching the street. His current appearance made him right at home where he was.

Sitting down at the bar he asked for the strongest cheap drink they had. Drinking down three glasses of the same thing in less than 3 minutes, he found himself flanked by two other thugs on the bar counter. The one on the left was bald, with a x-shaped scar on his head, his height at 5'2. He was squat and thickly built, though whether it was muscle or fat was hard to see in the darkness of the bar. On his right was a man with short, brown hair that seemingly hasn't been combed ever, a scruffy 5'oclock shade on his face, bloodshot eyes and a collection of facial scars consistent with a screwdriver. The three of them looked between eachother, giving a nod of acknowledging before returning to their drinks.

Naruto powered through 4 more of the watered-down booze he was being fed, and as he asked for another one the barman started speaking "Damn, haven't seen someone drink so much Chakuzo so fast without falling to the side."

"I don't really care about your life stories" Naruto's henge said in a gruff tone "I just care about your booze."

The man on the left spoke up, his voice was gravely and sounded more like a constant growl "Bad day?"

Naruto's henge scoffed "More like bad month. Haven't found work in a while. I've been living on the cash I lift from people walking the highways. Between that and managing the money I've rarely had the time or the chance to have some quick fun with the ladies, or a drink that doesn't taste like carbonated piss."

The man on the right eyed him for a while, twirling the liquid his own glass before chugging it down at once, then turned to face Naruto "What's your name?"

The Henge'd Naruto answered with no hesitation "Akegane Koushi"

"Well, Akegane, you could always join my band. We're currently working for a man named Gato, he's stinkin' rich and pays well enough for proper booze. He even gives us girls as a bonus if we do a proper job."

'Koushi' raised his glass to that, speaking with a slight slurr "I don't care about the specifics as long as I can have my fun."

The brown-haired man nodded towards the door "Good. We can take you towards the camp and get you introduced to the boss. By the way, name's Komushi, and baldie over there is Haito."

Slamming back their drinks simultaneously, the three men left the bar after slamming some crumpled bills on the counter, heading towards the bandit headquartes.

 **\- With Zabuza and Haku -**

The pair had been walking silently for a while. Naruto's tale hit too close to home for both, for Haku it was her childhood as a bloodline holder, and for Zabuza it was watching his good friend and Mizukage Yagura plunge his country into a bloody civil war and seeing the misery and pain that resulted from that.

They had just left their hideout after clearing it of gear before heading towards Gato's HQ to have a talk with the midget. The two of them completely bypassed security - well, as much security as could be provided by thugs and the occasional ronin - and emerged directly inside Gato's office, with the midget being none-the-wiser.

"Gato."

Zabuza's voice startled the man, causing him to fall off his rotating chair with a girly squeal before rounding on them. His fright changed into anger as soon as he saw the figures of Zabuza and his masked companion.

"Zabuza, I promised you good money to kill the bridge-builder. You told me that those demon brother people were capable of taking care of it, but they failed. Now, after you told me you'd personally deal with him, I hear that the construction of the bruidge is still procceeding and Tazuna is as far away from dead as I am from poor. So, WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING!?"

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at Gato while Haku released some killing intent. She was fighting the reflex of just killing Gato then and there and instead trusting on Naruto's plan.

"Do not speak to me like that, Gato. And do not doubt my word, or my skills. I ran into some problems on the way to dealing with the builder, but I'll have him dead by the end of the week. I _want_ that paycheck, and I am going to get it. Understand?"

Gato gulped and nodded once before Haku and Zabuza made their way out his office. As soon as they were alone Zabuza made three water clones "You have enough chakra to last at least 45 minutes each, maybe more. Split up and map the HQ with his office as the refference point. Keep a lookout for any hidden safes or deposits, passages and the sort. Draw with as much precision as you can, and make sure to burn the scrolls before you dispell." After that he gave each of them a long scroll and pencil and they scattered. Looking at Haku, both nodded before vanishing in a blur of speed.

 **\- Tazuna's home -**

Kakashi's shadow clone watched as the large scroll that was pinned to the wall of the room he was in started being filled in with schematics and drawings. Different sections were drawn at the same time, revealing the basic layout of Gato's HQ. "Man, the work that Naruto does with seals is amazing."

Thinking about his blonde student he sighed in sorrow. He failed his teacher and Kushina, but not for a lack of trying. Whenever he tried adopting Naruto, his attempts were blocked by the civilian council. He tried to get as many shifts watching Naruto to make sure he was always protected, but he had other assignments as an ANBU captain that required his service. And he was too afraid of approaching him personally and being rejected by the child, so he kept their contact only mask-on.

' _Sensei, you'd be disappointed in your own village. This is what you and Obito sacrificed yourselves for..._ '

Shaking off those depressing thoughts, the clone went back to guarding the house, Tsunami and Inari alongside Sasuke. The original was guarding Tazuna at the bridge with Sakura.

 **\- Bandit Camp, a few miles away from the city -**

"Boss" Komushi started, speaking into a closed tent from which grunts and pained whimpers sounded "This here is Koushi and he's looking for work"

A long, male groan was followed with small female sobs as dressing noises came from within the tent. The bandits circulating around were already used to it, not even batting an eye, but Naruto had to exert his full focus in order not to simply obliterate the camp itself. It wouldn't do to tip their hand too soon, making Gato aware would fuck over every plan and make sure his associates covered their asses up, and that was unthinkable. But still... Destroying everything within a 2 mile radius was a very attractive proposition at that moment. Rapists were some of the lowest of the low, which is why he always took care of disposing of them back in his corner of Konoha.

He singlehandedly reduced the rates of sexual assault in the village to almost nil. After all, when all rapists were coming up dead regardless of who they were, be it civillian or shinobi, your self-preservation instinct overcome your sick tendencies.

Keeping from grimacing and retching was a hard task as his enhanced senses let him smell even the bodily secretions, segregated hormones and the fear and despair coming from within the tent.

A 5'9,green haired man toting a scratched out Ame headband emerged from the tent.

' _Rokusho Aoi... So you didn't stick to defecting from Konoha, but did the same from Ame to lead a bandit camp... Well, I'll be getting Tobirama-Jiichan's sword back, at least._ '

Aoi looked 'Koushi' up and down, trying to measure him up and get a handle on how strong he was ' _Good build, seems like he's on the strong side for a Ronin. Of course, he's nothing against me, a former Jonin of Amegakure..._ '

"Looking for work, huh? Well... A new pair of hands is always welcome, it means the lot of us have to do less work. Find yourself a spot to set up around here."

'Koushi' nodded lightly "I'll try to set up as soon as possible, but I have some personal business to take care of. Give me 2 days."

With a nod from Aoi, 'Koushi' vacated the bandit camp, already making plans. It seemed that team 7 + Zabuza and Haku would be having a busy week.

 **Omake**

 **The break in**

It's been a tough few years for Uchiha Sasuke. After his older brother exterminated his family, he didn't think things could get worse.

He was wrong.

There was something that roused the fear and dread from the bottom of his heart that could only be matched by that night. It was something so horrible that it sometimes made him wish Itachi had killed him and spared him of the experience.

 _Fangirls._

Just the word sent a shiver through his spine. They were pushy, insistent, constantly trying to encroach into his life and knew not the concept of personal space. Everyday was a battle for survival as he tried tokeep them away from him, and only the Uchiha district provided safety from that menace.

As he strolled through the abandoned streets he felt a major chill run through him, as if someone had just walked over his grave. Looking around out of intuition, his eyes caught a flash of pink and yellow for an instant from the corner of his eyes, but when he turned fully to check it out, there was nothing in view.

Suddenly, he felt something akin to a hand swiping over his butt and a whisper of " _Sasuke-kun_ " in an indistinct, youthful female voice.

He froze, the hackles on the back of his neck rising as his worst fear came to mind ' _THEY'RE INSIDE MY SAFE SPACE!_ '

Whirling around fully, he saw nothing or no one capable of touching him, causing him to let out a relieved sigh ' _Calm down Sasuke, your mind is just acting up. There is no way those she-demons can get to you in here..._ '

Settling down, he resumed his leisurely walk through the district, before the blowing wind sent the sound of giggling girls towards him, making him freeze and squeeze his eyes shut. He felt a pair of ghostly hands, small and girly climbing up his body, feeling almost like a soft piece of cloth or a small, directed breeze, before something spoke.

" _Tonight, you're all mine._ "

He ran. Sasuke ran, and rand, and ran, without looking back. If he had, maybe he would have seen the blonde laughing his ass off with his fingers held in a handsign for wind jutsu.

 **-15 years later-**

"And that's why I always sleep in a triple-locket chastity belt."

"So" One of Sasuke's companions started "You sleep in a chastity belt because you're being stalked by a ghostly fangirl?"

His companions looked around eachother with serious faces, before they all cracked up laughing "HAHAHAHAHA! OH GOD THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!"

Meanwhile, somewhere, somehow, oddly enough, a pink-haired girl suddenly felt a surge of blind rage at being unable to steal- ahem- _relieve_ Sasuke of his virginity. Even odder , that rage was directed towards Naruto.

 _ **Scene! Another chapter down for the count! Please leave a review, it motivates me to write faster and better, as it shows your appreciation of the story and that the effort is worth it.**_

 _ **Sorry for the draught of uploads, but life is kinda hella difficult nowadays. I try to make time to keep writing, and it might seem not to be enough, but I do my best! Anyways, see you next chapter!**_


	9. Chapter 9: Bane of the Bandits

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is property of Masashi Kishimoto and his peeps. I own only a dirty razor, a toothbrush and a piece of limestone. As always, Enjoy!**

Dinner that night at Tazuna's residence was tenser than ever with the reveal of Naruto's childhood. People were walking around eggshells, trying to think about anything they could possibly say, or probably should not say under any circumstances. Sakura was the one to break the silence with a question.

"Naruto, is your life in the village really that... bad?"

Naruto's eyes suddenly gained focus as if he had just finished daydreaming as he answered "Huh? Oh No, not anymore. It stopped being bad when I decided that I didn't need the acknowledgement of those asses, so instead of just taking their abuse I started fighting back. Seriously, if I knew collapsing a pair of lungs would have given me the peace I wanted, I'd have done it earlier."

While everyone else was feeling different negative emotions, from sadness to pity, Naruto acted as if nothing was wrong. Standing up from his seat, he stretched before walking to the corner of the room to pick up his sword "Well, I'm gonna go commit mass murder, later!" before walking out of the house.

Kakashi was about to move, but Zabuza beat him to the door "Don't worry scarecrow, I'll watch his back and make sure nothing happens."

Kakashi nodded lightly before relaxing and turning his focus into his dinner, while Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna and Tsunami stared at him with various levels of incredulity. Sakura, like always, was the one to break the silence.

"WHAT!? HE SAYS THAT HE'S GOING TO COMMIT MASS MURDER AND YOU DON'T EVEN SAY A THING, SENSEI!?"

Kakashi turned his lazy eye onto Sakura, speaking in a tone one would use to explain something to a child "We. Are. Shinobi. We also happen to be in a mission where the enemy employs high numbers of bandits. If we were to let the bridge get built, even if Gato was taken down, the bandits would keep running roughshood on the village, and driving them out could lead to them returning in higher numbers before any security could be instated. Killing them all is the only solution, and since Naruto is our plant in the bandit camp he's the most logical candidate to do it."

Kakashi stopped to flip a page before continuing "Honestly, I don't know why he's wiping them out today. The plan was to do it later, just before we did Gato in so that he wasn't alerted, but he's moving up the schedule. Since he was the one that built the plan in the first place, then he's probably got a good reason and a way to compensate for it."

Everyone got silent again at that, but various thoughts ran through their minds.

'So this is the reality of shinobi...' came from Tazuna.

'Having children do such things... This world of ours...' were Tsunami's thoughts.

'Kakashi trusts the Dobe enough in both skill and brains to basically give him control of the mission... It feels like no matter how much he reveals, there're other layers of depth that he's still hiding...' was Sasuke's train of thought.

'I-is this what being a real Kunoichi is? Am I going to be risking my life and doing these horrible things?... No, Sasuke-kun will probably be there to defend me, and then he'll profess his undying love for me and... Kyah!' Try and guess.

'Hehehe, letting Chikuyasu fondle you like that, Konomi you naughty girl~' Goddamnit Kakashi,try to read the mood!

Haku kept thinking about the paralels between her own childhood and Naruto's, and Inari still hadn't come down from his room since the dressing down Naruto had given him. His meals had to be taken to him, and he only left his room for bathroom breaks, but other than that he stayed there.

 **-Bandit camp outskirts-**

"Zabuza."

Momochi Zabuza's eyes widened and his heart nearly jumped out of his mouth as a voice spoke up from behind him, with him not having felt a shred of it's presence. He turned around to see Naruto with a raised eyebrow and a tiny tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Turning his eyes to the noisy, rowdy bandit camp for an instant, Zabuza turned back to the blonde before whispering harshly "Goddamnit brat, your nearly gave me a heart attack. How the hell did you sneak up on me like that anyways?"

Naruto shrugged "It's a mix of natural talent and years of undetected pranking. In a village filled with Hyuuga's, Inuzuka's, Aburame's, and previously Uchiha's, if I hadn't learnt to be stealthy I'd probably be dead or in jail already. So I got a little good at hiding."

"A little good? Kid, I'm seeing you and talking to you but it feels like you're not even here, it's fucking terrifying. Now I'm more glad than ever that I didn't try to fight you." giving an exhasperated sigh, he decided to change subjects "So, how are you going about this? Frontal attack?"

Naruto shook his head "No, there are innocents on site and they would either die during the crossfire, or be used as hostages. I'll have to evacuate them first, then kill the bastards. I want your water clones stationed around all directions of the camp so that none of these guys manages to run away, or survives because they decided to go take a piss or something like that."

Zabuza nodded, watching freaked out as the cycloptic blonde simply vanished, blending into the leaves as if going invisible before the visage of 'Koushi' that the group had been informed of made his way to camp. He talked briefly with the sentries until Aoi waved him in and offered him a jugg of sake which he accepted with a grin and took a huge swig off of.

 **-45 minutes later-**

"Hey, Rokusho-san, do you have any girl providing some... Free entertainment... Around here?"

The green-haired ninja gave him a greasy grin as he snapped his fingers, causing his men to pull a brunette in a lightly ripped white kimono and chained wrists and ankles towards them. The girl was quivering and sobbing silently, a handprint on her pale cheek.

"Koushi, my good man, seen as you just joined, I'll give you the priviledge of being the first to use this one. Break her in, and make sure to make it memorable. We hardly get untouched ones nowadays unless we take them on the younger side."

'Koushi' gave a lecherous, and just as greasy grin, even while Naruto's stomach churned in disgust, his willpower keeping a tight lock on his desire to eliminate this stain from the face of the earth.

Naruto was pissed, and Rokusho Aoi would learn how bad that was. But that came later.

'Koushi' spared none of the other guys a second look before he roughly grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her into a dark-blue tent, closing the entrance. The men outside kept on their merry drinking and eating, celebrating both the huge payoff from Gato and the introduction of a new member. Little did they know about the slow-acting drug Koushi had slipped into all of the booze.

Inside the tent, the girl started whimpering and shaking as she begged "Please, don't do this to me! Please, I beg of you!"

'Koushi' crouched next to her, clamping his hand to her mouth to keep her silent before he started whispering in her ear "Calm down and listen to me. I'm not going to rape you, and I'm not a bandit, or a thug like these bastards, I'm an undercover ninja that's here to help you and everyone else they made a victim, but in order for me to do that you need to tell me where their slaves and hostages are kept so that I can evacuate them. I am going to release you now, but if you speak too loudly or make too much noise you may alert them. Can I trust you to stay calm?"

The girl nodded rapidly before Naruto released her mouth. She breathed in deeply before whispering lightly "The big orange tent, that's where they keep us, but it's guarded well. Mostly there are grown women, but there are a few men and some children as well." At this point her eyes welled up and she broke down, a quiet sob of "please, help us" escaping her lips.

Naruto nodded solemly, making her unconscious with a pinch to the neck before he made a shadow clone, doing his best to keep chakra emission minimal and banking on so many people being together and Aoi being drunk so that he wasn't detected. His clone nodded to him silently before disappearing.

'Koushi' walked back out of the tent, closing it back when others tried peeking in and giving them a grin while speaking "You don't want to see what I did to her, I guarantee it."

Knowing how sadistic and fucked up some of them could be, and being mostly drunk off their asses, the bandits took Koushi's advice and went back to eating and drinking.

 **-30 minutes later-**

"Hey Koushi" slurred Wabahashi, a shirtless, purple-haired guy with a scar running all the way from his cheek to his torso with a skip about neck level, consistent with one continuous, though amateurish slash "You'za purty naise guy, eh? Mozt of the time we get eitherr gutless puzzies or complete psyc-psychop-ps- fucked up guys."

'Koushi's' grin spoke volumes as he himself responded "Well, I would hate to break tradition then."

Before Wabahashi could either wonder about what he meant, or know what hit him, a sword had already severed his left arm and leg, making him scream out in excruciating pain on the ground, causing all the other bandits to gear up and surround 'Koushi', anger and alertness, well, as much as they could muster being both drunk and affected by a slow-acting disabling poison, shining in their eyes.

"KOUSHI!" started Aoi "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

'Koushi' tapped his finger on his chin, seemingly thinking hard about what to answer before his eyes brightened up and he crossed his arms over his chest, nodding sagely "Ah! I figured out what happened!" Before his tone darkened considerably, an ungodly amount of killer intent flooding the clearing and causing the majority of the already drunk people to either puke or void their bowels, sometimes both at the same time. Aoi himself was shaking, never during either of his carreers as shinobi for Konoha or Ame, nor during his stint as a bandit leader did he ever feel something so opressive. He wanted to run, but his legs simply shook in place. In fact, he felt his power slowly leaving him.

Koushi continued, ignorant to Aoi's thoughts, and spoke in a tone that would have Zabuza swear he stared death in the eye that night for the rest of his life " **I kind of despise you. You and your men encapsulate everything that is wrong with humanity, and that kind of pisses me off, so I decided that I am going to kill the lot of you. But don't worry, I won't make it quick.** "

One of the drunker men, taking courage from his booze, managed to power through the drug to charge at 'Koushi'.

He was shredded into ribbons in an instant.

"By the way, my name isn't Koushi. It's Uzumaki Naruto. Remember it for the rest of your short, short life, **worms.** "

And that's when the screaming started.

For the rest of his life, one of the tenets that Zabuza would live by would no doubt be "You do not fuck with Uzumaki Naruto".

Arms, legs, ears, noses, all of them were slashed off, ripping screams and sobs from the targets of the moment, and despair in the ones that knew they were next. And as promised, Naruto made sure that they lasted, making his cuts as deep and painful as possible without letting them instantly bleed out, so that they'd lay there for between 15 and 30 more minutes in intense, excruciating agony as they thought about what lead them to the lives they lived.

And, saved for last, was Rokusho Aoi himself. Him, Naruto had an even more brutal punishment in mind for.

"You, scum, are going to tell me where the Raijin no Ken is."

Still conscious despite the poison, Aoi did his best attempt at a glare, which was feeble at best, before he spoke "You're going to regret doing this to me when I recover, kid."

Naruto nodded lightly before giving him a full-blown psychotic grin through Koushi's visage, the bloodlust oozing from him making Zabuza who was watching in the woods damn near shit himself.

Aoi didn't settle for 'damn near' on the soiling front.

"I was hoping you'd say that. You see, I decided to punish everyone here for the bad things I know they did, but as far as they showed me, they only contributed to Gato's monopoly. I didn't actually see them killing, raping or otherwise. But you, as soon as I entered camp I witnessed you raping someone, and that made me really, really mad. I really have a thing against rapists. If you had been honest about the sword, I'd have to show you less brutality and do what I did to your other companions. But now I can freely do what I wish to! We're going to have so much fun!"

 **\- Later-**

Zabuza and Naruto were making their way towards Tazuna's as the sun rose in a companionable silence, at least from Naruto's perspective.

Zabuza was more in the 'incredulous, terrified silence' side of things. Soon, they found themselves nearing the door to the residence.

"Hey Zabuza."

The swordsmen turned towards Naruto, a sense of trepidation as he asked "Y-Yes?" ' _goddamnit, the demon of the mist doesn't stutter!_ '

"We won't talk about anything that happened back there as it is unnecessary, right?"

The underlying threat on the question was as subtle as a brick to the face, " _You better answer this the right way otherwise..._ "

Zabuza felt angry, being threatened by a 13 year old brat like a common thug, but before he could lash out in accordance to this anger images of what happened to Aoi flashed to the front of his mind, automatically getting a very vigorous nod from the missing nin.

Seeing him nod, Naruto sighed in relief before smiling lightly "Wouldn't want to have to do anything to you, Haku would've been mad at me."

As soon as they made it past the door they met up with the already awake Kakashi, leaning on the wall next to the door with his little orange book open "So, was the mission successful?"

Naruto gave him an eye-smile, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke "You could say that." Before his hand hovered near the handle of his blade as he thought back to the bandit camp. As soon as an ungodly gleam went through his eye, Zabuza whimpered, a memory of Aoi's last moments flashing through his mind's eye.

 **-Flashback-**

" _Enough, please! No more! I'll be good, I promise! please don't make me play with Mister biggles again!_ " The missing nin sobbed, his face stained with tears, snot and drool.

 **-Flashback End-**

Noticing his whimpering, Kakashi turned towards Zabuza "Is everything okay? Something more you need to say?"

"NO! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A MISTER BIGGLES!? THAT'D BE JUST NONSENSE!"

Kakashi blinked owlishly at that "Mister what?"

"NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I'M JUST TIRED, YOU KNOW! I'LL BE GOING TO BED!"

Kakashi watched Zabuza walking up the stairs, surprised by the fact that his shouting didn't awaken anyone else when he saw Naruto doing a half-tiger seal and feeling a sheet of chakra dispersing "Low-level privacy seal, didn't want the others overhearing us."

The copy ninja shrugged off his student's paranoia just as he had Zabuza's odd behavious before remembering something "Oh, the schematics of Gato's hold have finished settling."

Naruto nodded "Good. We'll plan for the break in later today, now I need a good bath and sleep."

 **-A Few miles away-**

Tora, Oni and Akame looked at the remains of the bandit camp, witnessing the handiwork of their target. They saw the level of precision and deliberate cruelty behind each cut on the bodies, the gouges on the ground and wooden posts, and the mostly amorphous, bloody pile of flesh with a tuft of green hair on it's head.

As they analyzed the body in-depth, trying to decipher what could have caused those injuries and prepare for another potential weapon or skill from their target, Oni noticed a sealed envelope in the opened gash that lead into the corpse's guts, removing it.

It had a glossy exterior that somehow was untouched by the blood and gore, and after separate verifications by each of the team members it was considered safe.

Akame opened the envelope as was protocol for team leaders, and found a very short letter inside.

' ** _You're next. After that, Your master._**

 ** _Uzumaki Naruto'_**

The three team members nodded towards eachother simultaneously, having reached the same conclusion.

Uzumaki Naruto was too dangerous to fight one on one. They'd have to have at least two fighting him. All three of them for optimal results.

And like the shadows that their master tried to make himself out to be, the three of them vanished.

 **Chapter: END!**

 **Jesus, it's been a long time since I last wrote. My life has honestly been hectic and hard to control. Juggling different responsibilities, trying to find the creativity to keep writing and so on and so forth... It's been a rough year so far. But still, I'll do my best to update!**

 **Please Rate and Review, as it allows you to give me your thoughts, ideas and opinions on the story, and further validates the time and effort put into each chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10: Will in Wave

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and a bunch of corporate dudes and dudettes. I don't own jack shit.**

 **Since I can't speak japanese, and know only a bit based on anime and manga, I will be using terms in english and japanese interchangeably. If I know the jap, I'll use it, if not, english. I'll be using both canon and original jutsu in the story, and elements of other forms of media in this version of Naruto.**

 **ENJOY!**

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _"Again!"_

 _The 9 year old form of Naruto shakily stood up, his facial bruises already better than they were five minutes ago. His forehead and teeth were bloodied, his left arm was limp with only his right one supporting his shoulder. His clothes were torn, both his long-sleeved burnt orange shirt, and his deep green cargo shorts. His sandals were prematurely worn, and some of his patches of skin showed chakra burns. Yet, he still fought on._

 _Across from him was Senju Hashirama, the first Hokage of Konoha and the man titled as the modern God of Shinobi, his face locked into an uncharacteristic, serious frown. His arms were crossed over his chest as he looked towards his disciple._

 _Watching from the sidelines was Senju Tobirama, the younger brother of Hashirama and Second Hokage of the Village. He was famed for having the strongest affinity for water in history, superb chakra control, and an analytical mind. His frown, unlike his brother's, was one of his defining characteristics. Though he seemed to be cool and collected, unrufled as always, his thoughts were a bit less composed._

 _'How? How can this child take so much punishment and ask for more!? How can brother keep going along with this ridiculous situation!? The child is at death's doors, for Kami's sake!'_

 _Naruto and Hashirama were oblivious to Tobirama's thoughts as Naruto took a deep breath, collecting himself, his chakra covering him in a shroud that numbed the pain and sped up his recovery, making him capable of dashing at Hashirama at speeds that were supposedly inimaginable to anyone his age, at least Low Jonin, though to the two Kage he might as well have been taking a leisure walk._

 _Naruto snapped out an arching right kick which Hashirama effortlessly dodged simply by tilting his head. The same happened for the kick barrage that followed before Naruto pulled out shuriken from his pouch, tossing them towards Hashirama before running through a slew of handsigns and thinking to himself '_ _ **Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**_ _'._

 _Three shuriken turned into 30, which Hashirama blocked by slamming his foot onto the thick treebranch he stood on, causing a wall of wood to emerge in front of him. Imagine his surprise when the wall was torn asunder by an explosion, with Naruto hopping through said wall, his clothes singed and skin burnt showing that he was very close to the initial point of explosion. He gathered chakra into his arm and swung at Hashirama's face again, though Hashirama once again simply tilted his head to the side. What was unexpected by the older man was the shockwave emitted from the punch, causing him to turn his head around and see more than just a few trees with their bark blasted off._

 _But. Hashirama was called the God of Shinobi for a reason._

 _Even with his focus turning towards the path of destruction, his leg automatically snapped towards Naruto, repeatedly hammering into his face and torso, throwing him away and causing him to slam into a thick tree trunk before slumping downwards._

 _Naruto, once again defying Tobirama's expectations, managed to slowly stand up, this time his left arm being not just limp from fatigue but exhibiting intense chakra burns. His legs were jelly as his knees shook and wobbled, and his eyes were lightly swimming. By now, even his hair was matted by blood. He managed to slurr out, despite all that "A-Again!"_

 _"ENOUGH!"_

 _Naruto, and Hashirama, both turned towards Tobirama with extreme amounts of surprise. Tobirama was the cool and collected one, he wasn't supposed to give angry shouts._

 _Said man jumped to the tree trunk in front of his brother, his red eyed glare doing nothing to the man who defeated Uchiha Madara "Brother, this is no longer training! By now you're just beating up a child!"_

 _Hashirama's response was calm and nonchallant "If young Naruto says he can keep going, then I'll continue."_

 _Tobirama clenched his fist as he spoke "He is being stupid, as are you, brother! I know he can heal fast, but going this far is only going to do him more bad than good! You are supposed to know restraint, especially when dealing with children...-"_

 _Tobirama was suprised by the amount of Killing Intent he felt, raising his nerves to his skin. Surprisingly to him, the killing intent came not from Hashirama, but from behind him._

 _He turned around, only to see Naruto glaring at him with an impressive intensity, even for his standards. If he was Low Jonin level in most ninja skills, his glaring was well above that._

 _"I am not a child. The villagers... This village... Your student... And my father, made sure to fuck that up. I did not have the luxury of enjoying a childhood, I've been surviving despite the fact that the odds are always stacked against me. There are people that hate me for what I am, others that hate me for whom or what they see in me. There are those that hate me for the fact that I do not let them break me and my spirit. I've been fighting against them all this time, directly or indirectly, but I feel like, sooner or later, the level of the fighting is going to rise. Until then, all I can do is prepare and make sure that I become as strong as possible."_

 _Hashirama watched on stonefaced as Naruto continued._

 _"This world is big, and new threats emerge all the time. You can never be strong enough. I'm smart enough to know that the dead are meant to rest, and neither cruel, nor stupid, enough to try to keep you away from your loved ones on the other side, and from the realm of shinigami, so the time I have with you is limited. I will be making full use of that time. If I can still stand, I will keep training. If I can still move, I will keep fighting. If I can breathe, I will keep learning."_

 _Tobirama broke in at that "That is no life for anyone! At this rate, you'll kill yourself!"_

 _"I either become strong enough to protect myself, my precious people and what I believe in, or I die on my own terms. Either choice is acceptable."_

 _The resolve shining in Naruto's eyes made Tobirama's eyes widen as he looked back towards his brother "Aniiki! You knew this would happen from the start?"_

 _Hashirama responded seriously "Indeed, I believed things would play out as such from what time I spent with Naruto. Tobirama, do not underestimate his resolve. Despite his feelings for the village, in him I see the will of fire burn brighter than in any other. So I treat him as I would like to be treated. Seriously. Like an adult. Having his limits pushed whenever possible. And it is working._

 _Last month he couldn't even attempt to get close to me. Now he's already forcing me to dodge. By this time next month, no, next_ _ **week**_ _, I believe he'll force me to use my hands."_

 _When Tobirama looked back at Naruto, he saw the result of his brother's speech. Naruto's will and fighting spirit burnt stronger than ever before, his legs had stopped shaking, and his arms had been painstakingly coiled back._

 _Tobirama reached a decision at that moment._

 _"Naruto, you said you could use Shadow clones. How many can you make and still spar with Aniiki?"_

 _Naruto thought for a moment, looking inwards at his chakra capacity before answering "250. Maybe 300 if I push it."_

 _"Very well then. I want 325 Shadow Clones of yours with me. I swear it on my Name and my title as the second Hokage that I will do my best to pound chakra control into you, and with Kami as my witness by the time you graduate you'll be fit to be a med-Nin."_

 _Naruto's eyes widened with happiness, before a pensive look passed through his face. Then, his face set in that stubborn expression that meant he would have his way no matter what "My mother had water as her main chakra nature. By the time I dispell the Edo Tensei, I intend to make her, and you, proud of my control over water."_

 _Tobirama let out a sigh, before his lips twitched almost imperceptibly into a small smile "Very well, Naruto. By the time we're finished, your water prowess will match mine. That is not optional. Me and brother might be unable to convince you to follow our legacy of protecting the leaf as it's leader, but you will carry on our legacies of terrifying your enemies with a mere mention of your name."_

 _ **-Wave Country, Tazuna's Home-**_

"Kakashi."

"Zabuza."

The men were standing leisurely inside the dining room of Tazuna's. Kakashi as always was reading his book, and Zabuza seemed to be content in simply lounging around while Sasuke and Naruto filled their turn to keep watch. Sakura was also there, uselessly gawking at Sasuke.

"That Naruto brat... That's a pretty interesting apprentice you took there."

Kakashi's eye lazily drifted over the book as he answered "Oh, he isn't my apprentice. He is, for all intents and purposes, a regular, fresh-out-of-the-academy Genin."

"You're shitting me." The eyebrowless man spoke... With raised eyebrows? How the hell does that work?... Well, Kakashi wouldn't bother trying to decipher the mechanics of that, he could better spend his time reading, after all.

"Honest to Kami. In fact, for all his academy years he had some of the worst results in all his classes, always managing to just scrape by and pass to higher levels by the skin of his teeth. And then he goes and blows all of the previous academy records."

Zabuza whistled out loud "The kid managed to fool the entire command structure of your village? Pretty damn impressive for a brat his age, hell, for any age. That probably didn't sit well with a lot of people, deception aside, because of his status, I'd hazard."

At Kakashi's hard, sharp look Zabuza once again lifted an eyebrowless brow, god knows how, and spoke up casually "What? I was friends with one for the majority of my life, and his portrayal of his life in this village of yours added to the need to so completely fudge his results led me to this conclusion. They don't lead easy lives, having this condition pushed onto them without so much as a 'by your leave' only to be shunned by the same people they protect."

Kakashi's impetus deflated lightly at that, but he still spoke with a sharp tone "That is an S-rank village secret. Divulging it leads to summary execution, so hold your tongue from now on."

"Sheesh, I get it." Zabuza said with a careless wave of his hand, before resuming his previous thought "But still, his skills must've tickled some people the wrong way." Zabuza said lightly.

"They did."

Both A-rank shinobi jumped hard - which in civilian terms would equate to a single rapid, almost indistiguishible eye movement and finger twitch - at the easy tone of voice of the blonde. Or the simple fact that he made his way into the room without either of them noticing him. Or the fact that they _still_ couldn't sense him, despite being in the same room as him!

"Showing people that the 'demon brat' wasn't just an attention-seeking idiot who hides his loneliness and inferiority complex behind a façade of cockiness and overconfidence was big enough a surprise, but when you add in my skills, skills that they purposefully tried to keep me from learning the basics of, only to find out that I already had them and even better than they themselves... It really tweaked at them something fierce."

"You do know" Zabuza drawled out "That your village probably doesn't trust you generally, right? Your... Status... aside, any shinobi showing such an unprecedented and unrecorded leap in skills automatically goes under the microscope. After all, spies are a serious issue for any hidden village."

Naruto just shrugged carelessly, leaning against the wall as he peeled a banana "Of course the people in charge don't trust me, both on an intelectual and instinctual level. These are people who have survived through war, wars in the case of some. To run a village is to be able to accurately assess it's needs and dispatch the appropriately skilled people in order to sate them, so they need to know the approximate skill of their people. To them I'm an unknown quantity, they don't know what my skillset is, what problems I'd be suited to taking care of, nor if I myself am a problem. If they trusted me regardless, then the village would have been dead and buried 13 times over."

Kakashi spoke hesitantly "And that... Doesn't bother you?"

Naruto's answer was predecessed by a snort "Of course it doesn't. Regardless of what happens, my tenant makes it so that I am always an unknown quantity, my actions already get superior scrutiny. I am aware of this, and as long as it doesn't hamper my goals, I don't really have a problem with it."

After that, Naruto's demeanor changed into mission mode "Kakashi, the bridge is almost complete, so we'll be storming Gato's compound soon. I think that you should train Sasuke and Sakura to the ground while you can, since this is the best possible mission to get them blooded. I'm using my contacts to block Gato's escape routes and communication lines outside of the island, so he's going to turtle into his fortress. I'll give some friends of mine a support call, to watch our backs and make sure Pinky and Duckbutt don't get their tongues shoved up their asses. Literally, maybe."

"You seem to have a pretty wide net of contacts, kid. Any notable names in your little black book?"

"Now now, Zabuza, that would be telling. But, I can tell you of this famous A-rank I've worked with, mostly bare-chested, competent with a sword, mouth always covered, you might know them."

Zabuza snorted lightly "Sucking up to me won't get you reduced fees."

"Actually, I was speaking about Mariah Zanzaji. The mostly bare-chested part is only when we're in private settings." Naruto said breezily, ignoring the wide eyes of both men.

Zabuza sputtered out "You know Zanzaji?" at the same time as Kakashi rushed out "You've seen Mariah Zanzaji topless?"

Naruto chuckled lightly as he walked out of the room, ignoring their questions as he spoke "I'll be holding down the perimeter with Haku, you can take 'broody and the trap' to that open clearing beyond the forest, it's great training grounds." And just like that, he vanished. And once again, neither Kakashi nor Zabuza sensed even a sliver of a presence for the entirety of the talk.

Zabuza shook off his daze first and spoke "That brat is terrifying."

Kakashi just nodded in agreement before returning to his book.

It was an interesting situation for everyone, that would only get more so in the following days.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Heyo, Le Me here. Back at it again, trying to get back up to speed. It's hard, writing after a period of drought, but I'll try to update whenever I can. Please leave a review for it is the lifeblood of people who do this for free, knowing the appreciation and esteem that people hold to our stories are high enough to take the time to tell us what we do right, and help correct what we do wrong.**


	11. Chapter 11: First Contact

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and a lot of other people whom I have nothing to do with. I own only a tin of sausages and pickled peaches.**

"Kiba's mom is pretty hot."

"Naruto, I don't think this is the occasion to talk about that sort of thing!"

Naruto snorted as he deflected a sword strike with his own, forcing his oponent into a twirl which they shifted into a spin around their own foot, before trying for a spinning slash which Naruto jumped away from.

"It's always the occasion to talk about Kiba's hot mom. And his sister. Honestly, the Inuzuka women are just hot in general."

Kakashi himself was having a bit of a hard time, dealing with an enemy of his own as he responded.

"While I agree with the sentiment, we really should focus on what's happening right now!"

 _ **-Flashback, Wave, 20 hours ago-**_

"My sources tell me that Gato's hired 5 missing nin, 3 B-ranked and 2 A-ranked. We're going to have to take them out."

Everyone looked serious at that proclamation, and Kakashi spoke up "Do you happen to know whom he hired?"

"Yes.

First, we have 'Mobile core' Kagashi Tagiri, A-rank missing nin from Iwa whose fighting style specializes around the manipulation of terrain through various earth jutsu in order to finish off his opponent with his other well-rounded combat skills.

'Dazzler' Minashi Akiko, A-rank previously from Kiri, specialist in steam-based illusions which she tried emulating from the 2nd Mizukage, though she's nowhere near his level of strength, thank Kami. She will try to confuse, befuddle and charm you into doing what she wants you to, before finishing you off when your utility is through.

'Rock Golem' Kagashi Tageshi, B-ranked also from Iwa and younger brother of the Mobile core. His style specialty lays in defensive, armor-based earth jutsu. He's big, strong and dumb. Prefers to simply cover himself in rock hard armor, hence his title, before going after the opponent while simply ignoring any damage done to him. He's already quite physically strong, but his earth armor increases said strength, though it greatly decreases his already mediocre speed.

'Spark plug' Nanase Akeno, B-rank from Kumo and specialist in lightning style jutsu. Fights in tandem with a companion, whom she tends to constantly cover. Enhances her Taijutsu with lightning chakra, though her strength lies is emissive, long distance lightning jutsu.

'Stormcloud' Moritaka Nabe, Akeno's companion. He uses water jutsu as setup for her lightning jutsu for increased effect and lethality. Displays Low-jonin level water manipulation capabilities, though the rest of his skills are low chunnin at best. His companion tends to take care of direct combat while he sets up the field."

Zabuza grumbled at that before speaking up "I thought that this was supposed to be an easy mission. Without his thugs and his previous enforcers, me and Haku, Gato was supposed to be a sitting duck!"

"So sorry Momochi-chan, but you better than anyone else should know that no plan survives first contact!" Naruto said cheerily with an eye smile, getting a growl from Zabuza, a muffled giggle from Haku and generally lightening the mood of the group.

Focusing back on the matter, he spoke up "We'll have to strike today. If we give them time to set up and know the lay of the land, they'll probably try attacking first, and I don't like fighting defensively for the most part. Kakashi, how far along are Sasuke and Sakura in their training?"

Kakashi scratched his chin thoughtfully at that "I'd say that Sasuke improved greatly. He's solidly low-chunnin in most aspects, though his fire jutsu prowess is mid-chunnin."

Sasuke gave a cocky smirk at that, while Sakura just watched with stars in her eyes, causing Zabuza and Haku to scoot away from her, creeped out by the obssessive girl. Kakashi, ignoring all this, continued.

"Sakura on the other hand... Well, at least she can climb trees now!"

Sakura looked smug, as if she had just been declared the queen of the world.

Naruto, Haku, Zabuza, Sasuke, and surprisingly Tsunami and Tazuna gave the pinkette deadpan looks, though only Naruto spoke.

"Right. Dead weight. Don't know why I expected any different, but whatever."

Sakura visibly deflated at that, seeing that her teacher said nothing in her defence, shrugging non-commitally as if saying ' _I did what I could, but..._ '

Naruto shook off any stray thoughts before speaking, again.

"My plan is for Kakashi to take Dazzler, using his sharingan to nullify her genjutsu, Zabuza fights the earth core and employs his silent killing to make sure he can't plan anything against you. Sasuke takes Tageshi, fighting at a distance, staying out of his attack range and showering him with weapons and fire jutsu. Sakura stays with Tazuna's family. That way, she at least has someone to protect her in case shit goes wrong."

Sakura wilted even further at that, while everyone was surprised at Naruto's words. More surprising even was the fact that Naruto didn't speak with venom, malice or hatred. He spoke as if he were simply stating facts, something that he truly believed in. Rain fell from the clouds, grass is green, the sun is hot and Sakura is useless. He continued after that.

"Haku, you take on Nanase and Moritaka. Use your prowess over water jutsu to nullify Moritaka's setups, and your ice and low-jonin skills in order to fuck up Nanase. Though you should beware of the use of metal senbon, stick to ice ones. We have a few hours to prepare, we'll move out as soon as night falls."

As everyone else walked off to prepare, Kakashi pulled Naruto aside for a quick talk.

"Okay Naruto, I know that your interactions in the academy weren't the best, but childish drama wouldn't create this level of animosity. I'd like you to tell me what you have against Sakura. You're supposed to be, if not friends, at least comrades. Demeaning her like that is counter-intuitive."

Naruto shot Kakashi a deadpan look "Was anything I said wrong, or a lie, at any moment?"

Kakashi fidgeted slightly "No, but that's not the point. What do you have against Sakura?"

Naruto sighed heavily "Okay. Let me ask you this. You're someone who's had to fight for your entire life, facing dangerous situations for as long as you remember, everyone around you doing the best to keep you weak. You get strong regardless, and you get teamed up with someone who is incapable of even wiping their ass on their own, much less deal with enemy nin, not because they cannot become strong enough, nor because someone is actively trying to sabotage them, but because they _don't care about growing stronger._ Unlike civillians who can't fight for themselves out of lack of training, that person had years of training, instruction, and family with some shinobi in it, both active and retired who probably could have offered further help, and still they prefer to spend their time dieting, doing their nails and gossiping about boys instead of getting stronger. How would you see that person?"

Kakashi was gobsmacked at that description, while Naruto kept on.

"Let me tell you how I see that person. Useless. A non-factor. Someone who squanders given opportunities out of sheer stupidity. And if there's something I really dislike, it's stupid people. So as long as Haruno behaves like a _Sakura_ " The word Sakura was spat with distaste and disgust, like something toxic "Then I will treat her like a _Sakura_ ought to be treated."

Having finished speaking, Naruto gave Kakashi an eye smile before speaking again "Well, now that that's out of they way, I have to go prepare."

Unknown to neither ( _AN: Double negative, on purpose_ ) Kakashi nor Naruto because honestly they're both badasses, Sakura had been listening from around the corner, tears streaking her face.

'That's how my team sees me? Kakashi-Sensei couldn't even defend me. The way he said my name... Am I really that bad?'

Looking back on her years in the academy, and her behaviour from the graduation exam to the current moment, she was struck by the fact that everything that Naruto said was true.

'I really am just a waste of space on this team...'

Kakashi's voice sounded from behind Sakura.

"While Naruto's assessment was brutal, it was still accurate."

A sob emerged from her throat, before she heard Kakashi's lazy tone resume.

"But... It doesn't have to stay that way. People change, and grow up. If you take your carreer seriously, you can make it so your teammates don't think these kinds of things about you."

A seed of determination was planted within Sakura at that moment as she wiped her face dry of tears 'Kakashi-sensei is right, I can change! I can become more than just dead weight in team 7! I'll ask him, mom and dad for extra training as soon as this mission is over, and I'll show Naruto that I'm not what he thought me to be!'

Unnoticed by either the Inner, nor the outter Sakura, was the fact that Sasuke didn't even factor into her thoughts at that moment.

Seeing the determination shine within his student's eyes, Kakashi walked off, knowing that she'd come better off of this, while Naruto, who had been listening in unknown to even Kakashi, had different thoughts.

'We'll see if you can change, Haruno. You have one chance to prove you're not completely incompetent.'

 _ **-14 hours before the start, the woods surrounding Gato's compound-**_

"Well, this is it. We'll engage the few remaining pockets of thugs on the outside, and when the missing nin come out to play, each of you takes their specific target. During the fight, I'll sneak into Gato's compound and rob the man blind, before snapping his neck. Any questions?"

Sakura, unlike what Naruto had originally planned, had moved with the group, her assigned task being to watch Sasuke's back from a range with projectiles, with Naruto's clones staying behind to guard Tazuna's family. Of everyone there, though she was the most nervous, she was also the one with the most to prove. Stilling her shaking harm by gripping her kunai tighter, she started taking deep, measured breaths to calm down.

"Team, we are GO!"

At Naruto's call, all hell broke loose on Gato's forces. Kakashi, Zabuza and the blonde himself jumped into the most enemy saturated areas, carving their way through the unskilled thugs and drawing screams of pain and agony.

Haku herself was busy dealing with a group of 6 enemies, steeling her heart as she finished them off with her senbon unlike the usual near death state stunt.

Sasuke was skillfully fighting off two thugs, and as soon as he finished both off he was surprised by a large shadow looming behind him. Before he could be hit, the shadow let out a choked gurgle and fell backwards. When Sasuke turned around, he saw a bear of a man, a wakizashi near his limp, lifeless hands on the bloody ground, a kunai protruding through his throat. Sakura's outstretched arm and her pale, tearful face were the evidence of her doing her job. Sasuke gave her a minute nod, to which she responded with another of her own, before returning to the fight.

After five minutes of fighting, the fortress was once again silent before everyone saw a fog roll in and attempt to blind everyone. Naruto, Kakashi and Zabuza simulaneously let out a burst of chakra, clearing out the fog and revealing the 5 missing nin.

Kagashi Tagiriwas a man in his 30's, clothed in what seemed like an old, frayed and worn Iwa uniform with a few rips and tears. He was short and bald, with a large, bulbous nose, thick arms and long legs. His body was somewhat spindly for the most part, with the exception of well developed shoulders and thighs. Added to his prematurely white goatee and you had the image of a mountain goat painted for you, somewhat ironically matching extremely well with his fighting style. His scratched Iwa headband was worn as an armband.

Minashi on the other hand was wearing a light blue jacket, a skin-tight mesh shirt under that and a pair of tight, short shorts paired with heels to best display her legs and ass in order to distract her opponent. She was in her mid 20's, with average height and weight for her age range. Her light blonde hair reached her back in wavy curls , and her fingernails were painted in the same bright red as her lips, bringing out her green eyes. Her scratched out Kiri headband was worn as a necklace. All in all, quite a fine woman.

Pity she was a homicidal maniac.

Tageshi, unlike his older brother, was tall and muscular, with his brown hair cropped short and no facial hair. His upper body was bigger and buffer than his legs, and his eyes displayed agression and brutality, though they lacked a particular spark of intellect. He was garbed in only a pair of dark brown pants which were tucked inside a pair of boots, with his upper body bare and his muscles showing as a further means to intimidate his opponent. He met Sasuke's gaze and instantly decided that he'd be the one to break the brat's tiny neck. His own scratched out headband was worn as a belt buckle.

Nanase rubbed her hands in excitment, sparks jumping from them as Moritaka sighed resignedly, giving Naruto's group ' _Nothing personal, just business. Sorry_ ' looks.

Nanase seemed to be in her late teens, maybe 19 at best, with dark brown hair pulled into a loose bun. She was wearing the typical Kumo vest in white, with a long-sleeved gray undershirt and dark blue pants, her feet adorned in the common blue sandals. Her eyes were a stormy gray, her chest something like a big B/ small C-cup and her build was, for the rest, short, thin and lithe. Her scratched out Kumo headband was hanging from a chain suspended from one of her shorts' belt loops.

Moritaka showed none of the exuberance or eagerness from his companions. He was a man in his late 20's, his dark brown hair set in a spike, pinapple-styled ponytail, his slouched shoulders and loose stance speaking of someone who wishe to not be there at the moment. He did not wear his scratched out headband at all. All in all, he seemed scarily akin to what an adult Shikamaru would be. His lazily half-lidded eyes shined with a spark of strategic intelligence as they moved from person to person in Naruto's group. When his gaze fell on Naruto, his eyes widened in panic at what he seemingly saw.

'Ah, so he's a sensor then. Let's give him a proper scare.'

Naruto surprised everyone by being the first to break ranks, dashing past the enemy line at absurd speeds which didn't allow them to react before dashing into Gato's compound. At noticing a small speck of red liquid, everyone's eyes turned towards the source only too see Moritaka with his throat slashed open, his hands clutching at it tightly as they tried to stem the bleeding before he let out a rattling gasp and fell over dead.

Everything in the world stopped for both groups at the display of speed, precision, and _brutal efficiency_ from the blonde, before an angry scream tore it's way out of Nanase's throat.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"

As she moved to chase after Naruto, she found her path blocked by a girl in a blue, pinstriped, long-sleeved shirt and similar pants in brown, her own hair in a tight, orderly bun and a mask reminiscent of the Kiri hunter-nin corps covering her face.

Haku curled her fingers together, materializing ice needles between them "Your fight is with me."

That snapped everyone out of their daze. The A-rank shinobi traded looks between eachother before simultaneously dashing towards their opponents, meeting in the middle ground, Kunai-to-Sword between Zabuza and Mobile Core, and Kunai-to-Kunai between Kakashi and Dazzler.

They disengaged before dashing off to fight their individual battles.

'Rock Armor' went through five handsigns before a blast of rocks flew towards Sasuke who just barely managed to avoid them. Good thing too as they shredded through a tree as if it were, ironically enough, made of paper.

Sasuke swallowed down the nervousness he felt and spoke with more confidence than he felt "I thought you were a defense specialist. What, you noticed you were trash at it and decided to try something else?"

His opponent simply chuckled "Nice try, kid but you won't be getting me angry so easily, nor will you get me to spill this kind of information so easily."

Sasuke did as the typical Uchiha and H'ned at that before throwing a handful of kunai and shuriken at his oponent, and darting away into the treeline for the instant his oponent was distracted.

 _ **-With Haku and Nanase-**_

Haku and Nanase were in a fierce Taijutsu exchange, throwing and dodging eachother's dangerous blows, Nanase's because of her lightning coated hands and Haku because of her ice needles, until the hairs on the back of Haku's neck rose and she jumped backwards, avoiding a blade of water that would either have killed, or at least severely maimed her. Looking from the corner of her eye, she saw the form of Moritaka emerging from a puddle of water. Sparing a quick glance at where the corpse was supposed to be, she saw a puddle of water instead.

'Water clone. Smart.' were Haku's thoughts.

Nanase was more vocal with her own.

"WHAT THE FUCK!? I THOUGHT YOU DIED!"

Moritaka sighed tiredly before speaking "Me too, for a second there. That blonde one... Kami. I barely managed to pull off a Kawarimi with the water clone. If he had seriously tried to kill me, I wouldn't be here right now."

"What do you mean seriously tried to kill you, you lazy bastard?"

"What I mean is that the kid is a monster. His chakra feels both huge and stupidly strong. We should avoid fighting him at any cost, it'd be troublesome as all hell."

 _ **-Earth Country-**_

Nara Shikaku felt a sudden wave of rage fill his body before he snapped out a punch twice as hard as normal towards the Iwa-nin he was fighting, before he unleashed a massive amount of shadow blades which decimated the rest of the enemy squad.

His friends, Inoichi and Choza, gaped openly at the visibly angry form of their best friend, with Inoichi speaking up.

"Shikaku... The fuck was that?"

Shikaku turned his angry gaze towards the other two members of the original Ino-Shika-Cho, causing them both to cringe away from him as he spoke "The sanctity of the Nara clan has been disrespected by an outsider with no concept of copyright or trademark!"

The redhead Akimichi and blond Yamanaka both sweatdropped, shared bemused looks before shrugging it off as an oddity of their friend.

 _ **-Konoha, Team 10 training field-**_

Shikamaru's eye twitched before he let out a sigh and spoke up "Troublesome blondes."

Ino, who had been running right behind him screeched at him "AND WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

"...Troublesome."

 _ **-Back at Wave, Nanase and Moritaka vs Haku-**_

"I'll trust your skills when you say that kid is a monster, but that's not important right now. We're fighting this bitch right now, so set me up for the frying field."

Moritaka jumped away from the two Kunoichi, his hands already going through various handsigns before he breathed in deeply and then spat out a sizeable amount of water along the ground, at about ankle level. Nanase went through her own set of Handsigns before clapping her hands together, large sparks and small bolts arcing along her fingers and up to her wrists before she slapped both hands onto the water below her, her sandals being insulated to protect her from her own attack.

" **Water Style: Water Trumpet Technique!** "

" **Lightning Style: Thunder Clap!** "

" **Combination Technique: Stormy Seas!** / **Combination Technique: Stormy Seas!** "

The lightning travelled towards Haku at speeds to high to track.

 _ **-Kakashi vs Dazzler-**_

"Copy Ninja Kakashi, what an honor it is to meet you!... I've heard rumours about your dashing handsomeness... Or the possible lack of it. After all, you only hide your face if you're ugly."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head as he gave her a shrug "I won't say that it's true, and I won't say that it's false either. After all, I've heard women love a good mystery."

His opponent scowled before snarling out "I shall pry your mask off of your corpse!"

Kakashi's response was to raise his headband, revealing his sharingan eye.

"Try it if you can."

 _ **-With Zabuza and Mobile Core-**_

"Demon of the mist Momochi Zabuza. Never saw you as a contract breaker."

Zabuza shrugged at that, his massive sword in his hand as if it were weightless "I'm not. Gato never got anything written, nor did he pay the 50% nominal fee. The blonde kid, on the other hand, offered me a hand 25 Million just for starters."

"Interesting. I guess I'll have to head to your home base after killing you and your... _friends_... And collect the money. You won't be needing it in the afterlife, after all."

Zabuza chuckled maliciously at that "Oh, I could say exactly the same thing."

Then, he raised his left hand to his chest level in a half ram sign, his right hand, sword and all, being raised above his head " **Kirigakure no Jutsu!** "

A thick, unnatural mist rolled in before killing intent filled it.

 _ **-Gato's fortress-**_

"Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored."

Naruto's voice echoed around the room that he was currently stripping down to the copper wiring and sealing into a scroll, before finishing off and moving on, like he did with the previous rooms. With the aid of his Shadow Clones, only Gato's office was left.

Naruto steadily walked towards the office, kicking the wooden door off of its hinges before stepping in only to find Gato sitting behind his desk, cool as a cucumber as if he had no worries in the world.

"So you're the ninja tasked with killing me."

Naruto raised his left eyebrow, at that, his slashed eye still closed shut "You don't seem very scared for whatever reason."

"That's because I believe that you're a sensible young man. You're obviously skilled if your wiping out the bandit camps is any evidence. Why don't we reach an agreement between eachother. You give me the bridge builder, and 30% of everything earned within Wave goes directly to you. No village nor companions involved in the deal. What do you say?"

Naruto's right eyebrow rose to meet the left one "That's an awful generous offer."

Gato nodded in assent.

"You could've tempted me there for a bit if I didn't know you were bullshitting me from the start."

Gato's face twisted into an angry snarl as a blur moved from a shadow in one of the room's corners, the clang of metal on metal ringing across the office as Naruto's blade was met with one another.

Naruto was surprised once again by what happened "Well I'll be damned, helluva small world."

"Indeed."

 _ **-Sasuke vs Rock Golem-**_

Things weren't anywhere near as well as Sasuke had anticipated. He was expecting to fight someone slow, dumb and who could only fight close range.

Which is why he was getting his ass handed to him.

His opponent had shown himself capable of using long-range jutsu, peppering an area with earth spears and rock blasts as soon as he got a whiff of Sasuke. Whenever the Uchiha threw Kunai and Shuriken towards him he just deflected them with an unexpected dexterity, exploding tags and such were blocked by summoning chunks of rock to cover his exposed skin, and his fire jutsu were blocked by using mud, making it so that he wouldn't even feel the heat.

Sasuke was tired, bruised from a few rock blasts getting too close for comfort, and low on Chakra. His frustration was building and that resulted in a lapse of a second.

In that second, his enemy cut the distance between the two of them, a large, rock-covered fist further encroaching into Sasuke's personal space.

Sasuke's desperate thoughts ran a mile a minute, regrets of not killing Itachi, not showing Naruto up, and failing his clan and family all bouncing around his brain before things... _Shifted_.

Everything seemed clearer, colors were sharper as were details. He could see the fist moving towards him in slow motion, but it was too close! He wouldn't be able to do anything about it!

'At least I can say I managed to activate my Sharingan before dying...'

 _ **-With Zabuza and Mobile Core-**_

'Shit!'

Things weren't going any better for Zabuza. After using his ' **Hidden Mist Jutsu** ', he had made his way around his opponent while erasing his presence, trying to find any openings to exploit. He had tried to kill his enemy no less than 6 different times, and each time he was rebuffed and took the most damage in the exchange.

Deciding that the mist was simply going to uselessly drain his chakra, he let it drop before dashing at the enemy and using his kenjutsu to eliminate him.

Imagine his surprise when, as he prepared a swing, the ground under his feet shifted, unbalancing him and causing his slash to go widely above his target.

His enemy whipped out a Kunai, directing it towards Zabuza's liver only for him to shift at the last moment, getting lightly grazed on the side, before he whipped his blade back around to try for another slash.

This time, the earth under his pivot foot turned into mud, causing him to slip and fall onto the ground, but when his opponent capitalized on it and jabbed a kunai into his spine, he was disappointed to see Zabuza disappear into a puddle of water.

'Tch, water clone. Now where is he... Ah, I can feel the vibration of his feet on the ground. Now, wait for the right moment, and...'

In an instant, Zabuza's sword was parried and he took a kick to the chest, being pushed back, only to notice that his opponent was going through a set of handsigns.

Zabuza responded in kind by performing the handsigns for one of his signature jutsu.

" **Earth Style: Earth prison of the Noxious swamp!** "

" **Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!** "

A thick layer of mud started climbing it's way up Zabuza's legs, it's chakra-ladden state making a Kawarimi all but impossible. The water dragon emerged and it started trailing towards the battlefield as the mud reached Zabuza's chest.

Tagiri was seeing victory as all but assured 'His water dragon is too far. By the time it could have hit me, my mud will already have suffocated him and make it disperse. I win.'

The mud had, by now, reached Zabuza's neck, while the dragon drew itself ever closer to it's target...

 _ **-Kakashi vs Dazzler-**_

"Fuck's sake. Kai!"

Kakashi had just finished dispelling the fifth genjutsu in a row, the sharingan allowing him to see through all of the genjutsu so far. Tired of playing this game, and with the drain of his sharingan on his chakra, Kakashi decided to end things. As Dazzler was out of sight, he decided to go help out Zabuza so that they could double team her. He dashed towards the battlefield, seeing the distracted form of Mobile Core across from a mud-covered Zabuza, the mud raising itself by the second. Kakashi did not hesitate to jab a kunai deep into the enemy's spine, only to gasp as a thin sheet of fog cleared to reveal his kunai jabbed into... Zabuza's spine!?

 _ **-In Gato's Office-**_

Naruto shook his head lightly "Of all the people I expected to meet here, it wasn't you. Though how my contacts failed to alert me of your presence is a mystery to me."

"Is it really? After all, weren't you the one who taught me to be paranoid and anal about the information circulating around me?"

"Tch. You're trying to rile me up, aren't you?"

"Oh, you know me too well."

Naruto's eyes darkened at that "Indeed. And you yourself know me well enough to know that bad things will happen if you stand in my way. Move."

"Sorry, bossman paid upfront. Can't really skimp out of my contract."

Naruto let out a sigh at that.

"No, I'm the one that's sorry."

 _ **TBC...**_

 **Cliffhanger! Ain't I the evilest evil? So, what do you guys think of this chapter? What will happen to Sasuke, and Kakashi and Zabuza? And who is Naruto's mysterious opponent? Stick around and find out!**


	12. Calmer Tides and Putrid Treeroots

**Disclaimer: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and... No. Y'know what, I've been doing this every chapter so far. You all know the drill by now. So fuck this. Let's jump back into the story.**

 _ **Previously on Uzumaki Chronicles:**_

 _Our heroes discover that their mission is more dangerous than anticipated when 5 nin are brought into the fray as enemies! Sakura has a revelation and decides to change her ways after a confrontation between Naruto and Kakashi! Our heroes face the enemy, but it seems they're in a tough spot!_

 _And who's this mysterious person that managed to bypass Naruto's sources?_

 _ **-Now-**_

' _Is this how it ends for me, Uchiha Sasuke? Dying on his first mission, a C-rank, right after awakening his Sharingan?... Heh. It seems life really is fucked up._ '

Sasuke closed his eyes and waited for oblivion to claim him...

" **Water Style: Ripping Torrent!** "

That jutsu cry and the cold water splattering onto his front woke Sasuke up from his slump, only for him to see a large wave of water washing away the rock-covered for of his enemy.

"Well, we managed to get here in time."

"Barely! I told you to hurry up! Next time I'll be leaving without you!"

"...Yes brother."

Sasuke turned around towards the source of the two voices, only for his jaw to drop as he gazed at...

"THE DEMON BROTHERS!?"

Said brothers dropped their squabbling, turning towards Sasuke and simultaneously giving him a two finger salute.

"Yo."

Sasuke's mouth flapped uselessly for a while before he managed to regain his voice "What're you two doing here? Aren't you supposed to be dead? What the hell is going on in here!?"

Gozu, the elder brother took the reigns of the conversation "Well, what happened was..."

" **Now.** " interrupted the baleful voice of Rock Gole " **I'm mad. I was going to kill this brat first, but I'm going to start with you two jackasses, and then slowly and painfully gut the kid with a jagged rock. Heed my wor-** "

" **Water Style: Intense Backflow!** "

Meizu's cry preceded a torrent of water following the reverse flow of the original wave, slamming into Tageshi's back and ragdolling him across the forest, slamming into trees and past sharp shrubs before Gozu compounded by doing his own handsings and with his own callout of " **Water Style: Revolving Prison!** "

The flow of water shifted again, tossing Tageshi around before locking him into a large whirlpool of water. Eventually the whirpool died down into a regular " **Water Style: Water Prison Technique** ", drowning the shinobi previously known as the Rock Golem.

With the battle over, Sasuke took a moment to breathe in deeply before a thought struck him.

' _I'm alive. I awakened my Sharingan and I survived! I can still avenge my clan! I can still kill Itachi!_ '

Sitting down heavily, his back propped onto a treetrunk, Sasuke blacked out from fatigue and mild Chakra exhaustion. Meizu wrapped one of Sasuke's arms around his shoulders before turning to his brother.

"I'll be taking him to the pink-haired one, What're you going to do, brother?"

Gozu scratched his chin thoughtfully "I guess I'll go watch Haku's fight and step in if she needs backup. Later!"

And like that, the thought departed Demon brothers split up.

 _ **-Haku vs Nanase and Moritaka-**_

The electrified water surged towards Haku, the electric death growing closer and closer...

Before it started slowing down.

Nanase and Moritaka looked on in surprise as the water seemed to have suddenly lost it's momentum, before they were further surprised by the thin layer of frost that suddenly manifested on the grass around them.

Looking back towards the hunter nin wannabe, their eyes widened when she started making one-handed handsigns before slamming her foot on the ground.

" **Hijutsu: Flying needles of death!** "

The two suddenly found themselves surrounded by hundreds of electrified ice needles. Before they could as much as twitch, the needles started closing in on them.

Moritaka, being a sensor, was somewhat aware of the speed and flight patterns of the needles. Using his water manipulation to marginally slow down said needles, he threw himself over Nanase, being skewered and losing his life in exchange for his partner's.

Before Nanase could as much as scream, Haku's chilling voice reverberated around her.

" _You should've given up. Had you done so, your friend would still be alive._ "

Nanase spat distastefully "Friend? That lazy bum was only good as setup. If he couldn't keep himself alive from a weak ass bitch like you, then he deserved to die!... Still, you killed my partner. I'm going to have to pay you back in kind."

Suddenly the temperature around the entire clearing started lowering, frost covered even more grass. The water on the ground started rising, before a dome of ice mirrors materialized itself around Nanase. An intense killing intent flared up within the ice mirrors before Haku spoke, her tone one of hatred and disgust.

"You spit on the sacrifice of a comrade, one who sacrificed his own life so you could live. That, I cannot forgive."

Nanase scoffed before electrifying her hands again "And what're you gonna do about it, huh?"

Her response came in the form of various steel senbon burying themselves into her left arm, making it go limp, though keeping the nerves responsible for pain continuously flaring.

As Nanase screamed in suffering, Haku kept speaking as she dashed from mirror to mirror, needles flowing seamlessly from hand to target.

"One can only be truly strong when they fight to protect those which they consider dear to them. To so calously spit on another's sacrifice makes you the worst type of scum in the world. Though I regret your partner's untimely death, I will not regret slowly and painfully killing you."

Hundreds of senbon flew through the air, Haku's aim true as she hit every single accupressure point and nerve cluster responsible for pain and hypersensitivity, never allowing Nanase to fall unconscious. After being skewered by hundreds of senbon, the bleeding finally managed to make Nanase sway before falling limply to the ground, having died before she even touched the earth after various tortuous minutes.

"I don't remember you being this vicious, Haku."

Haku turned around, senbons clutched tightly in her hands before she saw the speaker and relaxed, answering in kind "I thought you were dead."

Gozu smirked at that "Rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated."

Haku let out a heavy sigh before she wobbled in place. Gozu dashed towards her, catching her and holding her up.

"Are you okay?"

Haku's voice trembled lightly as she answered "I... Maybe. I don't know."

Gozu removed her mask only to reveal her face drenched in tears.

"I... I killed so many people today."

Gozu repeated Meizu's earlier actions, supporting Haku as he took her back towards the pink-haired one "Don't worry Haku, you'll be fine. This is something all of us have to go through."

 _ **-Kakashi vs Dazzler-**_

Minashi Akiko cackled maddly as she saw the gobsmacked look in Zabuza's face, and the widening of Kakashi's. She licked her lips as a shiver of sexual pleasure shot through her core. Seeing the confusion and then mounting despair in her victims always did things to her. Doing this two both the famed Copy Ninja and the Demon of the Hidden Mist... She had fuel for her masturbation sessions for weeks!

Suddenly, Kakashi's voice spoke from behind her "You might want to dispell the Genjutsu you're under."

Her eyes widening, Akiko clasped her hands in a handsign before flaring her chakra with a simple spoke " **Kai!** ", revealing the scene she saw to be an elaborate illusion. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and she looked down only to see a Kunai jammed to the ring into her guts.

Slipping her finger into the ring of the Kunai, she gave it a good, solid tug and then marveled at the gushing red from her own stomach. Dipping her hands in it, she brought it up to her face before examining the bloody appendages.

"My blood, so beautiful... You did this, Kakashi. You truly were very handsome. Not a bad guy at all to fuck into a coma."

Kakashi sweatdropped lightly at that "If you had offered to do that before the fight, maybe things wouldn't have gotten this bad, y'know. Worst part is, you're pretty hot yourself. Y'know, psychotic tendencies aside. After all, the saying 'never stick your dick in crazy' exists for a reason."

Akiko flashed Kakshi a bloody grin "Rules are meant to be broken."

Before her body fell back, dead.

 _ **-Zabuza vs Tagiri-**_

Tagiri watched with anticipation as the mud rose to Zabuza's neck, then up his chin, to his nose...

Before the water dragon slammed down into the mud-covered figure of Zabuza.

' _Crafty son of a bitch, used his own dragon to free himself of the mud!_ '

Zabuza stood up, fully free of mud before doing a few more handsings.

" **Water Style: Water Trumpet!** "

Filling the clearing with shin-level water, Zabuza followed up with his iconic jutsu.

" **Hidden Mist Jutsu!** " 'Let's see you sensing my footsteps now, fucker!'

Tagiri seethed as his advantage over Zabuza of sensing the vibrations of his steps on the ground was completely nullified.

Clutching a kunai tightly, he tried his best to peer through the ever thickening mist, the oppressive feeling of Zabuza's presence and killer intent becoming stronger and stronger. Soon, he was a nervous wreck, jumping at every twitch before Zabuza's voice sounded on his left ear, from behind.

"Boo!"

He turned around, his kunai slicing through empty air before Zabuza emerged from the water behind him, lopping his head off with a swift swordslash.

Zabuza let his mist die down and the water run out, making his way towards Kakashi "Our roles here are done. Let's regroup with the pink one and wait on the kid to do his job."

Kakashi nodded his consent before the two leisurely walked away from the fortress.

 _ **-Gato's office-**_

"No, I'm the one that's sorry."

At those words, Naruto jumped backwards, a wave of water materializing from thin air and slamming into the figure of his opponent, staggering them before two blurs moved past them. Before they could chase after the blurs, it's instincts told them to block horizontally.

Once again their swords clashed, before Mariah Zanzaji spoke.

"Goddamnit Naruto, can't you just give up and let me do my job? I don't want to fight you!"

The Naruto in front of her shrugged "Hey, The boss doesn't want to fight you any more than you want to fight him. You just happen to be the opposition."

Mariah's eyes widened at that "The boss? Then..."

"Yes, I'm a clone. The boss moved past while you were staggered. Gato's already dead."

Mariah turned around only to see the corpse of Gato with a broken neck, the office already stripped bare of everything valuable, up to and including furniture for the short conversation she had with the Naruto clone.

Pouting, she walked up to Naruto and whacked him on the shoulder "NaruBaka."

Naruto grinned his foxy grin at Mariah "I did tell you I was the best fighter between the two of us."

"But you didn't even fight me! You just ran!"

"Correction, I avoided you. Now that your employer is dead, let's ditch this place. I've gotten everything worth getting, so I'm gonna explode it."

Mariah sighed in resignation before walking out alongside Naruto. After a while of walking, a large boom followed shortly by a raging fire signaled the end of Gato's reign.

 _ **-Tazuna's home-**_

"I thought you had said you killed the demon brothers, Naruto."

Kakashi said unconcerned as he read his orange book. Sasuke and Sakura were paying full attention, expecting an explanation, as was everyone else.

"I said I took care of them. I never said I _Killed_ them. Jesus, you'd think I'm in the habit of killing people..."

Everyone deadpanned at that except for Mariah who grinned massively from behind her face mask.

Seeing that no one truly appreciated his humor, Naruto let out a resigned sigh before explaining.

"You remember when we were talking to Tazuna about the state of Wave? Those two showed actual regret about the role they were playing. So I decided to have a little talk with them, using my strongest weapon."

Everyone leaned in expectantly, even Mariah, wanting to know what was the mysterious blonde's strongest weapon...

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _The demon brothers found themselves waking up, once again, tied to a tree. This time though, only the blonde was with them. Said blonde was looking at them as if searching for something, before he spoke up._

 _"Are you working with anyone else?"_

 _Gozu snorted while Meizu answered "No matter what you do, we aren't telling you shit! Torture us all you want, it won't matter. We were trained for this."_

 _Naruto shook his head at that, crouching in front of the brothers at eye level "I don't need to torture you, because I know you're going to tell me out of your own free will."_

 _Gozu was the one to speak now "And what, pray tell, makes you believe that?"_

 _Naruto's eyes gained a serious edge at that moment._

 _"The fact that both of you are actually regretfull about your supposed role in Tazuna's death. The fact that you can still feel this kind of emotion tells me that you're not bloodthirsty, homicidal monsters. You're doing this for a reason."_

 _At this moment, Naruto's tone changed to a softer one, as did his eyes "If you tell me about it, I may possibly help you."_

 _Before Gozu could do anything, Meizu spoke up sarcastically, an undertone of bitterness in his tone._

 _"You can't do much unless you have an army, or can raise the dead."_

 _Gozu shot him a reproachful look, while Naruto prodded further._

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _Meizu, seeing no sense in hiding things since he was sure of his demise, decided to come clean._

 _"Yagura."_

 _That simple word was said with so much venom that Naruto almost recoiled._

 _"The bastard is ruling Mist with an iron fist, labeling bloodline users as subhuman scum, hurting men, women and children and indiscriminately slaughtering them... We're working to try and amass the funds to raise an army to take him down."_

 _Naruto nodded appreciatively at that "I can understand your ordeal."_

 _Gozu lost his cool at that moment, snarling viciously "YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING! THIS WAR BROUGHT MISERY, LOSS AND GRIEF ON MANY! LOVED ONES BEING KILLED FOR SOMETHING THEY WERE BORN WITH AND HAD NO CONTROL OVER!"_

 _The three were silent for a few moments, before Naruto spoke up._

 _"I'm sorry for your loss. If you don't mind me asking... Who was it?"_

 _Meizu's jaw locked and he looked away from Naruto as Gozu took a deep breath before speaking in a somber tone._

 _"We weren't always the Demon brothers. We used to be the Demon Siblings. Triplets. We had a younger sister. She had a bloodline that allowed her to breathe underwater. We were enlisted as part of the possible Hunter nin corps, with her ability and our teamwork making us valuable to the village... At least until that bastard went crazy. Our sister... She was one of the first to die. We were doublecrossed during a mission..."_

 _Gozu choked up at that moment, while Meizu let out a sorrowful wail._

 _"Mitsu!"_

 _Gathering himself up, Gozu managed to continue, even as tears streaked both his and Meizu's faces "We heard that someone was going to turn on Yagura and try to kill him, we joined up with him and tried avenging our imouto. But... we failed. Now we're trying to raise the funds to make it a reality and make sure our sister can rest easy."_

 _Naruto spoke bluntly at that._

 _"Well you're doing a shit job at it."_

 _Gozu and Meizu shot him hateful, outraged looks, but before they could speak Naruto continued "I mean, the money raising part I can understand, but honestly. Your sister died to a monstrous tyrant who had no regards for the sanctity of innocent life. Do you think she'd be proud of you knowing your actions put another one in power of a country? Morons!"_

 _Gozu and Meizu slumped further at that, despair starting to claw at their hearts._

 _"But... I can help you."_

 _They both gave him hopeful looks at that._

 _"My contacts tell me of a rebellion in Kiri. They're trying to establish bonds to try to help the rebellion, but the rebels are nervous and wary. We need a show of faith. If the one you're working with is who I think he is, then we could kill two tyrants with one stone."_

 _Gozu spoke hesitantly "Wh-who do you think we're working with?"_

 _"The one who became a missing nin after a failed assassination attempt at the Mizukage, Momochi Zabuza. Am I right?"_

 _Gozu nodded as Meizu looked anywhere but Naruto, both feeling embarassed by letting slip Zabuza's identity, and maybe endangering the life of the one who tried to help them._

 _"Don't worry, I don't intend to kill Zabuza. I intend to direct him, like the two of you, towards the rebellion so you can help in the fight."_

 _That said, he cut through the wire holding them in place before handing them a sealing tag._

 _"Move away, in 3 days add chakra to that and say that an Orange showed you the way. I'll call on you if needed later."_

 _The befuddled brothers nodded dumbly before walking off._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

Naruto shook off his errant memories before taking in the expectant faces of everyone in the room.

"My most powerful weapon is... My _**Powerful Speeches**_!"

For the rest of their lives, no one in that room could possibly explain why, but those two words simply reverberated with untold amounts of power.

Moving on from that, Naruto looked towards Tazuna.

"Tazuna, tell the people of wave to gather at the town square. I'll be announcing our victory."

 _ **-Later-**_

"People of Wave! You can now sleep safe in the knowledge that Gato's rule is over and done with! Neither him, nor his thugs are going to be bothering you anymore!"

A deep silence engulfed the city, before the same child that Naruto had given the apple to started cheering and clapping.

"That nice Onii-chan helped me before! Now he made Gato go away! That blond Onii-chan saved us from that mean Gato!"

That basically lit the powder keg. Naruto's words, plus the young child's declaration started a wave of chants a cries of "Wave's hero!" and "Our Saviour!"

Things got even more hectic when Naruto started passing around food, medicine, blankets and giving back people's money and deeds that had been taken by Gato, returning ownership of every port, inn and similar to the proper people, and handing control of some of Gato's less Illegal ventures to the most capable peopl.

From then on, that day became known in Wave as 'Naruto Uzumaki Day', one of their biggest and most important holidays.

Through it all, Naruto's companions could only smile and laugh as the teen suddenly saw himself set upon by a horde of children and well-wishers who wanted to get the attention of their hero.

Later on in the same day, the last stone of the bridge was set by Inari, before the bridge was officially inaugurated, with it having been name 'The Great Naruto' bridge much to the blonde's pride, though on the outside he seemed more awkward than anything else. After a tearful goodbye which the entirety of wave attended, Naruto's group moved off. After a while, five people garbed in formal suits, with white masks with a red spiral in the middle appeared in front of the group. As Zabuza, Haku and team 7 prepared to fight, Naruto raised his arm.

"Stand down, I know these people. This is what I meant when I said information that could lead to Yagura's downfall, Zabuza. Gozu and Meizu were with them between their defeat and last night. If you go with them, they'll point you in the right direction."

Zabuza looked towards the demon brothers, getting nods from the before he reached a decision.

"Me, Gozu and Meizu will be going with them. Haku, you stay with the blonde brat."

Haku's eyes widened at that "Please don't abandon me too, Zabuza-Sama!"

Zabuza sighed heavily.

"I'm not abandoning you Haku. Truth is, from now on we'll be fighting in a war. War is when humanity shows it's worst facet. Seen as we shinobi can be pretty nasty even in peace, then you can understand how bad things could get. Go with Naruto. Make friends, memories, grown stronger. When you get strong enough to kick my ass, then come and help fight the good fight."

Haku's eyes were moist and her voice trembled as she spoke "Zabuza-sama..."

Zabuza surprised everyone by walking up to Haku and pulling her into a tight hug.

"Stop it with this -Sama bullshit. You're the closest I've ever had to a daughter... No... You _are_ my daughter, Haku. And no daughter of mine is going to call me master."

Haku gave him a teary smile which he responded to with a smile of his own, before frowning lightly.

"Now follow your father's instructions and go live your life. That's all I ask of you, my daughter."

Zabuza then turned towards Naruto, giving him a hard look.

"I'm trusting you to keep Haku safe and out of trouble, Kid. Consider the remaining 25 Million payment for that."

Naruto responded by snorting.

"Cheap old man, you lost the other 25 during those poker nights. But trust me when I say that, as one of my precious people, I will protect Haku with my life."

Haku's cheeks were dusted with a light blush at that, while Zabuza nodded appreciatively before turning towards the masked people "I'm ready to go."

Nodding, the masked men moved out, Zabuza, the Demon Brothers and Mariah Zanzaji moving with them.

As the team 7 moved towards Konoha on treetops, Sasuke, Sakura and Haku locked within their own thoughts, three low-powered paper bombs detonated on a branch right in front of them, tossing Sasuke and Sakura in different directions, causing Kakashi and Zabuza to group up to the side and Naruto to land on an open clearing, only to be faced with Akame and Oni, two of Danzo's operatives.

On the trees, Keeping Kakashi and Haku busy, were Tora and her animal companion.

Which brings us back to the start of the last chapter.

 _ **-Start of last chapter-**_

"No, seriously Kakashi. Now that I really think about it, Inuzuka women are really freaking amazing. Maybe it's just animal magnetism?"

Kakashi dodge a tanto slash before moving out of the way of a massive, clawed paw's smack.

"Naruto, we've got bigger problems to deal with here!"

"Fine!" Naruto snapped out before he jumped back, gaining distance from his two dance partners and crouching into an Iaido stance, his right hand on the sheath of his sword, left hand on the scabbard, said blade strapped to the left side of his waist. His feet were parted to shoulder distance, one slightly in front of the other, both bent slightly in a crouch before Naruto seemed to just blur, before reappearing behind both _ROOT_ Operatives. Akame blocked the slash with his tanto, ending up with a cleanly cut through sword, while Oni gathered chakra to his arms, hardening them before crossing them over in front of him in an X-shape, before a gash appeared on both arms.

' _He managed to cut through my best defense. Uzumaki is too dangerous to be allowed to live._ '

It seemed Akame reached the same conclusion from the nod he gave, before both went on the attack. Feeding chakra into his muscles, Oni felt them bulge further, his body's strength and speed increasing before he appeared behind Naruto, snapping a kick at his spine. Akame appeared under him, kicking him upwards before Oni appeared above, kicking him down and making a crater. From above, Oni went through a set of handsigns for a wind jutsu while Akame went for fire.

" **Wind Style: Vaccuum Blades!** "

" **Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!** "

The wind blades and the fireball exploded into a fiery tornado wich engulfed Naruto's form inside the creater, getting preocupied gapes from Kakashi and Haku, an incredulous look from Sasuke at his competent... _Most_ competent, after all Sakura had pulled her weight and covered his back the previous day... teammate being slain so easily.

Sakura's mind simply froze.

Then, to everyone's surprise, the tornado destabilized from the inside and exploded outwards, revealing the form of Naruto, his hoodie, shirt and mask gone revealing his chiseled muscles and handsome face.

He simply cracked his neck, acting as if he hadn't just emerged unharmed from a fire tornado.

"Guess I gotta step things up, then."

To everyone's surprise, Naruto disappeared, only for Tora's companion to lose it's head. Tora jumped back, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, a blade was protruding from her chest starting from her back, before the visage of Naruto disappeared as if it were only a shimmer, or a Mirage.

' _That fighting style... Shisui!_ ' were Kakashi's incredulous thoughts.

Akame and Oni hadn't idled while Naruto slaughtered their companion. Oni ate a bunch of chakra pills before focusing the stupidly massive chakra flow on his muscles, then dashing at absurd speeds that even Kakashi's sharingan couldn't track.

To his surprise, Naruto responded by accelerating to the same speed, becoming motion blurs for Kakashi, faint shadows for Haku, and invisible even for Sasuke's sharingan, and for Sakura.

When the two showed up again, Oni was missing his left arm, the right arm being broken in three different places.

Akame's eyes lit up red from withing his mask, and Naruto met his gaze.

' _He's got a Mangekyo!... And I looked him right in the eye. Great._ '

" **Tsukuyomi (?) !** "

 _ **-Inner world-**_

"You're now in my realm, Uzumaki. In here, I am god, and for three straight days..."

"Three days, indescribable pain, yadda yadda I know how it goes. On with it then, asshole."

As Akame made his way towards Naruto, mental construct blade in hand intent to causing brain death, he was surprised when the roles were suddenly reversed, with him bound to a boulder, spear-tipped chains doing the deed, while Naruto leisurely polished his sword.

"Let me tell you a little something about the world of ' **Tsukuyomi** '. Based on what Itachi and Shisui told me, it works by connecting the mindscapes of the used and the victim, before a hypnotic suggestion of the sharingan elminates any mental resistance from the victim. The thing is, if you know about it, you can counter it. Then it simply becomes a case of who has the most willpower. And _oh boy_ , wouldn't you know it, being stubborn and headstrong just so happens to be very much an Uzumaki trait. Prepare to get a sword shove up your ass, man."

 _ **-Outside-**_

In an instant, Akame was kneeling down on the ground, coughing out blood. Oni moved his gaze towards him for an instant, and that automatically cost him his head.

Last, but not least, Naruto walked towards Akame before severing his head as well, and sealing it into a stasis scroll, doing the same with the body in a different scroll. Naruto's clones did the same from the other operatives.

Acting as if nothing major had just happened, Naruto turned towards his squad.

"So... We keep going?"

And like that, through trials and tribulations, impossibilities and incredulities, team 7's first C-rank mission ended in a bang.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **Holy shit this chapter's lit. I think. You're the judges of it, but not to toot my own horn, but I really enjoyed it. Like always, leave a review, it helps motivate me and make my writing better as you can point out errors and mistakes in my story.**

 **Arrivederci!**


	13. Chapter 13: Legacies revealed part 1

**We've been here before so I ain't gonna disclaim shit!**

"So let me get this straight. After discovering that the client misranked the mission, that was after meeting a B-ranked duo, you decide that the best thing to do was to proceed, despite the fact that you gained information that implied the mission rank to go from B to A, and you gave full command of the mission to one of your genin. Then, you let things progress to the point where you faced 5 missing nin, from B to A rank, where one of your students almost _died_. Is that what you're telling me?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head before sheepishly answering "That's about what happened."

Hiruzen took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, KAKASHI?"

It didn't work. Before he could continue, Naruto spoke up carelessly.

"Calm down old man, everything worked out for the best, didn't it? We liberated a country, killed a sleazebag, took out a few missing nin, Sasuke awakened his sharingan and we brought a bloodline user to our village."

Hiruzen managed to somewhat compose himself at that, though he did not intend to simply let the matter drop.

"Be that as it may, it does not change the fact that he, in all his supposed prowess and experience, decided that the best course of action was to put the mission in the hands of a fresh genin!"

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, his demeanor changing to cold and profissional, as did his tone.

"Perhaps, _Hokage-sama_ , Jounin Hatake decided that based on the skills and resources that I displayed I could feasibly take charge of a mission under his supervision."

"You're just fresh off the academy! You are not experienced or mature enough for this kind of responsibility!"

Naruto's eyebrow arched further, his tone absolutely frigid as he spoke.

"Team 7. Haku. Please give me and _Hokage-sama_ some privacy to... _Talk_."

It wasn't a request.

The mentioned parties understood the underlying danger behind Naruto's tone, and having been the ones to witness his prowess on the field first-hand, they were more than glad to give the obviously angry blonde a wide berth.

As soon as the office door closed, Naruto closed his eyes for a second, gathering himself before saying "Best dispense the ANBU under the windowsill, behind the potted plant and under the couch. The conversation that I want to have is best not heard by any other ears."

Hiruzen complied, raising his hand. With a woosh, the room was void of operatives. Naruto pulled a tag out of his pocket, placing it on Hiruzen's desk before going through a series of handsigns, a shimmering blue dome pulsing outwards from the tag to create a bubble around them.

Hiruzen watched Naruto set up the top tier security measures, including a barrier that he himself didn't know about with a placid look, while Naruto pulled up a chair and sat himself down across from the Hokage.

Crossing on of his legs over the other, his back straight on the wooden chair's back, Naruto looked the Third straight in the eye before speaking.

"Namikaze Minato. Uzumaki Kushina."

Hiruzen let out a weary sigh, his many years catching up with him at that moment. He could only respond in a tired tone.

"How long have you known?"

"Long enough. What I want to know is, why didn't you tell me?"

"You weren't prepared for that information, Naruto. Your parents had dangerous enemies, and I expected the old you to spout out about your parentage as soon as you were made known. You have to admit, your mask was somewhat dimwitted."

Naruto's eyes narrowed at that.

"Don't try to pin this on me, old man. Despite anything else, what was one of the old me's base tenets? What did I believe in? What used to define me, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Not giving Hiruzen the time to answer, Naruto continued.

"Uzumaki Naruto never breaks a promise! He always keeps his word! You knew well enough that if you had me promise not to divulge it, I'd have kept it a secret as long as required, come hell or high water! Plus, with the reveal of my _real_ self, you knew pretty damn well that I, better than anyone else, was capable of keeping a secret. Why the fuck did you not tell me?"

The Third Hokage, God of Shinobi, the Professor had absolutely nothing to defend himself with as Naruto kept tearing into him. He couldn't even get mad that someone who was for all intents and purposes his inferior, both hierarchically and chronollogicaly, was chastising him like a disappointed parent does a child. He could feel only shame.

"I'll tell you why you didn't tell me. Because you wanted to keep me blind to the fact that the villagers were not only fucking with me as a supposed orphan child who just happened to house the fox, but also to the fact that they were spitting on their hero's sacrifice by abusing his legacy. His, and the legacy of Whirlpool! You were working under the assumption that if given enough time I'd forgive those wastes of human flesh and that when that information came out, It'd be all sunshine and daisies!"

Hiruzen's face fell even further at Naruto's accurate words.

He did not do it out of maliciousness, or to deliberately hurt him. He was simply afraid that with that information, Naruto would start harboring resentment towards the people of the village for their treatment of him and it could lead to bad things, both for the village, and for Naruto himself if he made a wrong move, nullifying Minato and Kushina's sacrifice to protect both their child, and their village.

"Well it isn't fine! I've known for a long time, and your hope of me ever forgiving those bastards and trying to gain their acknowledgment to fill dear old dad's shoes by wearing those robes is a pipe dream. I won't actively try to act against the village because I promised to people close to me that I'd try to move on beyond the past, but make no mistake, the moment someone fucks up, their ass is grass. Shinobi, merchant, civillian. I don't rightly care."

"Naruto! You can't simply go around killing people!" Hiruzen shouted horrified, to which Naruto answered calmly.

"I won't hurt anyone as long as they do not try to hurt me first. The fact that you presume that an event which would lead me to react lethally will eventually happen speaks more about the morals of your village and it's people more than anything I ever said."

Noticing the automatic response he took, the Hokage couldn't do anything other than succumb to a shocked silence at the renewed view into what was supposed to be a village of peace and love's inherent acts of violence and hatred. Naruto still kept speaking, disregarding the many shocks that Hiruzen had already gone through that day.

"Now that that's done with, I'd appreciate it if you instated Haku as a Genin."

"Naruto, I can't just up and do that, It'd be preferential treatment!"

Naruto sneered hard at the old man, before spitting out acidly.

"Bullshit! This village owes me! For the fact that every breath I take protects them from a 20 story tall fox, for the fact that they so thoroughly fucked up what was supposed to have been my childhood, for my parents' actions towards the protection and betterment of the village, and as the legacy of the country of whirlpool, and, more specifically, the Uzumaki clan! I am going to collect for each and every one of those favors, and adding Haku into the active shinobi roster does not even make up for 1% of what I'm owed! If you or anyone else tries to cheat me, I'll simply take all of my information dossiers to all of the different Daimiyo.

I'd like to see who would be willing to send missions to the kind of people capable of stabbing their self-sacrificing hero in the back by abusing his martyr of a son. Not to mention the fact that the fire daimiyo and my dad and mom were pretty close friends. You don't have a choice, old man."

Knowing that there was no way to actually salvage the situation, and that Naruto's trust in him was far more shattered than he ever believed possible, Sarutobi Hiruzen could only sigh and nod his agreement. He couldn't even feel mad about Naruto's threats about going to the Daimiyo, as the child was fully justified.

"Very well. I will make sure that Haku gets inducted into our ranks. And based on your mission performance, Kakashi will not be getting any formal reprimands or sanctions. Team 7 will have an A-rank registered in all of their records, and appropriate pay will be going to each of your accounts, as will the bounties of the nin you've taken down. Is that to your satisfaction?"

Naruto nodded stiffly, causing Hiruzen to sigh again.

"If it isn't too intrusive of me, Naruto... What do you intend to do about your heritage?"

"Nothing, for now. I will release that information when I am ready to, though I'll be receiving my inheritance now."

Hiruzen went through a set of handsigns, revealing a hidden drawer on his desk from which he removed a rolled up scroll. After that, he made his way from his chair to the portraits of the Hokage, feeling somehow as if the hung pictures of the Hokage, including his younger self, were giving him disappointed looks. Stopping in front of Minato's portrait, Sarutobi bit his thumb, wiping some blood on it before going through a sequence of 42 handsigns. In a puff of smoke, the portrait had been replaced by a wall safe. Using a combination of handsings, timed chakra bursts and an actual code, the safe opened outwards with Hiruzen removing from it Naruto's birth certificate, stamped by the Hokage, with his actual parentage on it, his parents' marriage certificate, a different scroll, a tri-pronged kunai and a wooden box.

Naruto looked reverently at everything as that was left to him by his parents, as far as he knew, the cold façade that he had used during his conversation with the third cracking lightly at the need to connect to them in a more meaningful manner.

He marvelled at the birth and marriage certificates, before taking the scroll and wooden box and sealing them alongside the first scroll within a seal on his arm. Standing up, he gave the Third another stiff nod before leaving the office in deliberate strides.

As soon as Naruto closed the door behind him, Hiruzen sat himself heavily on his chair, rubbing his face with his hands before pulling a framed picture of a smiling Minato hugging a heavily pregnant and equally smiling Kushina, both of them with a hand placed on her swollen belly.

Feeling the full weight of the conversation, a bitter tear rolled down his face as he spoke to himself "We failed you. Me and this entire village. But, more importantly, we failed him. And no matter what we do, we won't ever be able to make it up to neither you nor him."

Letting out a bitter chuckle, Hiruzen spoke as he wiped his tear away "I'm sure that in the afterlife Kushina is going to take all of our asses to task for what we've done. If we manage to make it to heaven, that is."

 _ **-Same time, Hokage's Secretary Desk-**_

Team 7 and Haku were standing nevoursly as they waited for any news from Naruto or the Hokage. The fact that the room was completely and unnaturaly silent for the duration of their talk was unnerving, as if no-one was even inside.

They awkwardly watched as Naruto walked out of the Hokage's office, his face blank as he made his way towards them.

"Haku, you're going to be a genin. Kakashi, you're not getting a reprimand or sanctions. The entirety of team 7 gets an A-rank in their records and A-rank pay plus bounties. The hokage dismissed us, so I'll be going."

And like that he disappeared in a Shunshin.

 _ **TBC**_

 **Shorter chapter, adding a bit of drama to the mix. The next chapter is going to be longer, and more fleshed out than this one, but this one serves as a good interlude into the next arc. What happened here is going to have serious consequences for the rest of the story.**

 **As always, please leave a review, this is FrancoGamerxz, out.**


	14. Chapter 14: Legacies Revealed part 2

**Y'know how this works.**

"This is where he lives?"

Haku's question was directed towards the entirety of team 7, though Sasuke and Sakura were just as surprised as her.

After what happened at the Hokage's office had managed to leave their thoughts, Haku was suddenly reminded of the fact that she had nowhere to stay. Remembering Zabuza-sam... _Her father_ 's instructions - that thought still made her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside - of making friends, the fact that Naruto had promised to take care of her and her perfectly justified crush on the blond, she decided that seeking him out and staying with him was the most logical move.

Which lead to Kakashi taking the three genin to the red light district, to an abandoned apartment complex in an obvious state of disrepair. They made their way up a few sets of stairs to an apartment that had it's walls covered in graffiti, the words ' **Demon** ', ' **Monster** 'and ' **Leave this place** 'being the most proeminent in big, bold, red letters. The windows showed some odd patches, as if it different types of glass had been fused together in an attempt to fix more than just a frew breaks, the wood of the door was chipped and well worn, there were scorchmarks on the bottom of the walls and some of the ceiling and the word ' **Killer** ' carved deeply into the door itself.

"This can't be right. Why would the dobe live here when there are other available places in better areas, probably at the same price? Hell, don't orphans get discounts in housing bills?"

Naruto's voice suddenly coming from behind them had the visitors startled "Well, that's just one of the reasons why I say that the Civillian council is a bunch of bastards. They've had it in for me since the start, but I coped."

Sakura was the next to speak up.

"But why? Even... back then, you may have been a bit annoying and played some pranks, but that doesn't justify this!"

Naruto just shrugged at that "Ask your parents, they'll know."

"Are you saying that my mom and dad..."

"No, not really. Despite your behaviour towards me, your parents were always alright with me. Your dad is very friendly, and your mom is at least civil. It's your aunt Sakiri which is a right bitch."

Ignoring the awkward silence, Naruto unlocked his front door and walked in, while adressing his company.

"Welcome to my humble abode. Can I offer you something to drink? Tea, Juice, Coffee?"

Surprisingly, though it shouldn't have come as a surprise seeing Naruto's behaviour, the apartment itself was very neat and tidy.

The door lead into an entrance area where people were to take off their shoes and hang their coats and umbrellas if they had any, and that area lead into a spatious living room, with high-quality, properly mantained waxed wooden flooring, the walls were painted in a sky blue and the room itself was illuminated by various fluorescent lamps, spaced in a manner to provide the most light without overlapping, giving the room a calm, soothing feel.

Bookstands occupied some of the walls, with one of them occupied by a large television, a very comfortable couch in a stylish white leather opposite to it.

A large, square, high-quality wooden table was a bit to the side, various chairs arrayed around it, being Naruto's dining table. In the same direction of the table in relation to the door, there was a doorframe, the door had been removed, leading into a kitchenette, it's walls the same soothing blue, with a counter/breakfast bar, the stove and washing machines off to opposite sides of the same wall, with the fridge in the middle of the two, and sturdy, hand-made wooden cabinets above. There was a further door leading into a fully stocked pantry.

On the opposite side of the kitchen there were two doors, the one on the left being the one to the main bedroom which was fairly spatious, a king-sized bed with linen sheets and a thick, woolen comforter in créme and light orange hues, just like the pillow covers, a bedside table to the left of it. Naruto's room only had one window, which was angled in a manner which gave no visibility of the bed. It's walls were colored in a mint green tone.

A wardrobe filled with various different outfits and shoes, with a full-length mirror on the door was placed at one corner of the room, while a desk was at the exact opposite corner.

The master bedroom happened to be a suite, with a well-sized bathroom with large bathtub, capable of housing about 6 people at the same time comfortably, a shower stall with full body length nozzles which could house up to 3 people at once, a modern-looking vanity with a large, double mirror, the medicine cabinet filled with ointments, first-aid kits and painkillers, and a regular, porcelain toilet. The walls and floor were lined with ceramic tiles, a large drain in the middle of the bathroom to take care of any splashes from the tub or the shower.

The door next to the master bedroom was the guest bedroom, with a comfortable couple's bed, somewhat smaller than a queen sized, a stand with various drawers for clothing for the duration of said guest's stay, a door connecting to the master bedroom and a window of it's own, also at an angle away from the bed. Like the master bedroom, the guest bedroom too sported a work desk. It's walls were peach coloured.

Somewhat away from the bedrooms there was the bathroom, furnished with a common tub, shower stall, porcelain sink and toilet, nothing too special.

All in all, Naruto's home conveyed a sense of easygoing wealth, mixing the functional with the stylish instead of simply stuffing his home with expensive brand names.

"Your home is beautiful!"

Haku blushed after her inadvertent outburst, while Sakura spoke under her breath "This must have cost a fortune, Naruto's damn loaded!"

Sasuke was the one to speak next, surprisingly.

"If you're wealthy enough for this lifestyle, then why is the outside of your apartment in the state it is? I mean I get the rest of the complex, the landlord may just be lazy, or cheap, but you had to have taken down a few of the apartments adjacent to yours, and I doubt that the previous tenants were generous in parting with them. You could simply pay for a D-rank to get your walls and door fixed."

"First of all, the whole complex is my property so no worries about buying out other tenants and cheap landlords, but I have my reasons to keep things as they are. First, if you're a thief, would you choose a beat up, rundown apartment complex as a target? And the graffiti, scorch marks and carvings... They're reminders, to me as much as to my enemies. Of what, I'm not going to tell you. But I have a reason to keep them as they are. That being said, mind telling me why you were looking for me?"

Kakashi facepalmed lightly at that.

"Right, we almost forgot. Haku doesn't have somewhere to stay, and she was hoping she could stay with you."

Naruto nodded at that, a teasing grin on his face as he spoke "Sharing an apartment with a totaly hot girl two years my senior? How could I, in my right mind, ever say no to that? Of course you can move in with me!... Though you'll have to take care of your clothes on your own. Aside from the fact that I'd probably try to dress you in what I'd like to see you in instead of what you'd like to wear, there's the fact that most stores don't really like me. I take the effort to use henge when shopping for essentials, but other than those I avoid giving my hard earned money to the people who hate me. Sakura, and maybe Ino and Hinata could probably help you with that."

Haku bowed at the waist to Naruto, a visible blush tinging her cheeks "Thank you for your hospitality, Naruto-kun."

Kakashi broke in at that.

"Well, now that this is done and settled with, I'd like you to meet me in training ground 7 a week from now, at 7 A.M. Ja ne!"

And with that, Kakashi disappeared in a shunshin. Or at least he tried to.

Seeing Kakashi's confused look, Naruto spoke up.

"My home is protected from unauthorized shunshin. Only me and those I key into the defense systems can do so. You'll have to at least walk a good 5 feet away from the apartment ccomplex."

Kakashi left, followed by Sasuke and Sakura, leaving Naruto and Haku alone.

"You hungry? Because I can honestly say I'm famished. I make a mean Sukiyaki if you're into it."

Haku nodded at that, the thought of a warm, homemade meal bringing a smile to her face.

"That sounds delightful, Naruto-kun."

 _ **-A few hours later-**_

Having left Haku sleeping in the guest room back at his apartment, Naruto decided to check out his parents' home. As soon as he reached the gate he identified a very complex sealing array, encompassing a slew of different barries, from reflective, to fire-resistant, to concussive dispersal meant to nulify any forceful attempts at breaching said home, with the only way to bypass or disable the barrier being by being of Uzumaki-Namikaze blood. It seems his parents were very anal about keeping their secrets away from the hands of outsiders.

The array even had cleansing seals, so that even someone of Uzumaki-Namikaze blood made it inside, any genjutsu, seals, poisons or other forms of manipulation or control were nullified.

' _Nothing about people wilfully waltzing in to give secrets to others as far as I'm aware... If Danzo had sinked his claws into me he'd probably have unlimited access to my heritage._ That _is definitely not going to happen_.'

Naruto slashed his hand, placing the bloodied palm into the seal itself at the center of the gate before pushing a bit of his chakra.

He felt as if something had analyzed his body from head to toes, before the gates unlocked with a near silent 'click'.

Walking in, Naruto closed and locked the gate behind him before walking past a large yard, what seemed to have at one time been a well-manicured lawn + garden combo was covered in various weeds, with overgrown trees here and there giving Naruto an image of a bit of shadow in a hot, summer day.

After walking what felt like more than 4 blocks of nature, Naruto bypassed what had looked like a pump house, as big as his entire apartment, before he could actually see the Uzumaki-Namikaze clanhouse.

He had to swear loudly at what he saw.

The fucking _Clanhouse_ was as big as the Hyuuga complex.

' _How the fuck is this possible? I checked out the perimeter from the outside and it didn't seem even a quarter as large as this!_ '

Checking out the walls that separated the compound from the rest of the other homes of the other compounds of the clan district,Naruto found a bunch of spatial distortion seals.

' _Of course! He expanded the compound by creating a subspace akin to that of a sealing scroll, and then anchoring it down to the physical space that should have actually been here! Well, he did manage to perfect the Hiraishin, so he had to be pretty good at time-space manipulation fuuinjutsu. And unlike a Kunai, he did not need to compress his sealing formulas to such a stupidly small space. He wrote a huge chunk of the formula on the inner walls of the compound, and probably set down the actual anchor somewhere safe. Awfully convenient, if I ever need to move this place I just need to play a bit with the anchor._ '

Naruto blinked owlishly as he broke out of what he had affectionately named his ' _Seal-enthusiastic Uzumaki_ ' mode, going back to his evaluation of the house itself. If you could call it that.

Making various clones, Naruto sent them out to explore diffent sections of the home while he personally searched for anything personal related to his parents.

Naruto was very surprised when the insides of the home didn't show even a hint of dust, and the fridges, cupboards and pantries were stocked and usable, but he really shouldn't have been, knowing of these fantastic things called Stasis seals.

The dispelling of a clone had Naruto running across a lounge area, through a living room, past a bathroom and up a set of stairs before he stopped in front of a closed, wooden door.

An Uzumaki spiral had been artistically carved in the exact center of the door, probably his mother's choice, but above the spiral the names ' **Uzumaki-Namikaze Minato** ' and ' **Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina** ' had ben fixed on a metal plate. Reaching for the doorknob, Naruto found it to have a low level locking + privacy seal combo, keeping sound from going outwards, but allowing it to flow in, and probably intent on mantaining privacy from children too young to understand such boundaries.

Pulling a key from his pocket which he had found within the wooden box, Naruto inserted it into the keyhole and heard a quiet click signaling the unlocking of the room. Walking in, he saw a bed larger than even his king-sized one, which was pretty fucking impressive to be honest, with white silk sheets dotted with red spirals. Walking towards the bedside table that he presumed to have been his mother's, he scooped up a picture frame which showed a beautiful red-haired woman in a green dress, her stomach visibly enlarged as she seemed to be in tthe last months of a pregnancy, sitting down on a comfy chair, the visage so similar to the one he saw in his mirror daily belonging to the fourth hokage, his father, putting on an appearance as the man seemed to lovingly kiss his pregnant wife's stomach.

Turning the frame around, Naruto removed the picture intent on taking it with him, only to see some writing on the back in a flowery, refined handwritting.

' _8th month, me, Minato and my darling baby Naruto_ '

He didn't know when he started shaking, nor when the tears started falling down his face, but soon Naruto was sobbing his heart out, crying for the first time in years while tightly hugging his mother's pillow, the picture of a loving family in his soft grip.

He had an actual family. He was loved by his parents. Even though Naruto understood this at an intellectual level, knowing that both his parents gave their lives in order to protect him, the subconscious abandomnent issues caused by years of neglect and abuse had still been there.

He wouldn't be fixed in a day, but the physical proof of his parents' love started the healing process of his mental scars.

After continuous hours of crying, to the point of his eyes becoming puffy and bloodshot, and his throat sore and his voice hoarse, Naruto returned to his apartment and decided continue exploring his parents' home after calming down, but now more than ever he decided that he'd bring respect and visibility to his clan.

He swore it on his honor as an Uzumaki-Namikaze, and an Uzumaki-Namikaze doesn't go back on his word. Believe it!

 _ **TBC**_

 **Za endo! Once again, I decided to write. Another plot advancement, unlike what I promised in the previous AN I know, but it just came out of nowhere! But seriously, now that this is out of the way, I'll be focusing more on the action, and I'll be giving a bit more visibility to the Konoha 12 and their Jounin sensei.**

 **As always, please leave a review as it pays my inspiration's electricity and water bills and make sure it stays a tenant of mine, living inside of my brain, and follow and favorite if you enjoy! Toodles!**


	15. Chapter 15: Chunnin E-whats?

**Disclaimer: You know how it goes by now.**

 _ **-Somewhere in Fire Country-**_

"Soi Fong, report."

"Hai, Naruto-sama. As you instructed, me, Ibuki and Hayabusa dealt with Danzo's _ROOT_ stationed in the country hidden in the woods. The nation has been liberated, and we have our people helping in the rebuilding efforts and the enforcing of peace right now. By our estimates, in 2 months it would be feasible to remove every one of our visible agents."

His entire upper body shrouded in darkness, Naruto linked his fingers and placed his chin on his laced hands as he seemed to be thinking things through.

"Very well. The three of you have performed admirably, and shall be suitably rewarded."

Soi Fong saluted at that before rejoining the other operatives, sitting down to the right of Ibuki, and to the left of Mariah Zanzaji, before Naruto refocused on another one of his people.

"Yoruichi. How goes your assignment?"

A black cat emerged from the shadows in a corner of the room before it's body gradually shifted into the known form of the dark-skinned, sexy woman. She met her leader's gaze steadily as she spoke.

"Old bastard is paranoid as hell, but that hasn't stopped me before. I've got some info already compiled for you in a dossier I left at your desk, but I'm digging for more. Unearthing Danzo's actions completely also require me to investigate other individuals which have done business with him before, so I will be quite busy. My estimates say 6 to 7 months, as far as I know."

Naruto nodded appreciatively "That is acceptable. As always, I was right to put my trust in you, Yoruichi."

As he finished speaking to the literal cat woman, Naruto turned to adress the rest of the group at large.

"We've established an alliance with the Kiri rebels. Our ' _gift_ ' of Zabuza and the Demon Brothers has generated some goodwill, and that will allow us to further aid them. Our forces shall be mobilized to support the rebellion, so we're pulling back important assets from the stable operations for now. But remember, we do not want the 5 nations becoming aware of our actions and sniffing around, it will make things harder for us. No marks, identifiable traits, masks or any other such things which would possibly give away our... Association. Understood?"

A chorus of "Hai, Naruto-sama!" rang around the room before Naruto dismissed them by raising his hand.

"Impressive as always. Your charisma will take you far."

Naruto turned around, his eyes locked on the visage of a light blue-haired woman in a lab coat, with a light purple blouse and a loose, tan skirt reaching her knees, taking a drag off of a cigarette. She adjusted her square-framed glasses, the glare disappearing to give space to a pair of exotic, orange eyes. She had a soft, round face that was very beautiful, despite her light frown lines, a beauty mark under and to the right of her pouty, cupid-bow like lips.

"You flatter me, as always, Doctor Mashiro. But, something tells me you did not come all the way up here from your lab just to tell me that."

Kasugano Mashiro, head scientist and researcher of Naruto's ' _little_ ' crew nodded at that.

"You are, indeed, correct. I came to talk to you about something important, but before that, how do your new oglers feel?"

Closing his eyes, Naruto let chakra flow into them before parting his eyelids, revealing a pair of eyes with a blood red iris, a black pupil in the middle and three distinct tomoe slowly circulating around the pupil. Feeding more chakra into the eyes, the three tomoe seemed to slowly retract into the pupil before what seemed to be a triangle, made of three intersecting elipses, made itself shown around the pupil. Naruto answered casually, as if possessing a pair of Mangekyou were nothing important.

"Well, they feel pretty great. Their previous owner did not use them often in this level, so the optical degeneration is minimal. I've yet to test out these eyes for any eye-specific jutsu, but the genetic integration therapy and my innate regenerative capabilities should allow me full use of these eyes' maximum potential, with reduced degeneration speeds. But you knew all of that already, no?"

"Indeed. I came here to tell you that project S-01 and S-02 are almost complete. I just need a few more samples of your blood and chakra for it. But I have to say, having that blood clone of yours in wave take the slash to the eye was a masterful move. If... When you do take his place, you can use that as an excuse for one of your sharingan. Though the other would have to be hidden."

Naruto waved his hand carelessly at that.

"Don't worry about that. There is a reason we replaced the natural Uchiha black from the eyes with my own eye color. I can simply say that my tenant regenerated my other eye, or that I went to a medic nin to replace it or something of the sort, but if anyone were to sense any chakra discrepancies with the eye I could simply claim it to be an implant."

Mashiro nodded at that before approaching Naruto and drawing some blood from his shoulder before placing a tag on him that he filled with chakra.

"This should be plenty for now. I'll come back if I need any more."

With that, Mashiro turned around, the clacking of her heels on the floor resonating around the room. Naruto's thoughts at the moment were focused only on one very important thing.

' _Damn she has a nice ass._ '

 _ **-1 week later, Konoha, Night-**_

The swaying leaf is a very popular bar located in the high-class civillian district of Konoha. Though the bar was open to all patrons of age, civillians and shinobi alike, the fact that it had shinobi-exclusive discounts and that the owner was a retired chunnin made the place into an unnoficial 'shinobi lounge', more specifically for shinobi and kunoichi of Tokubetsu Jounin rank and higher.

Today we find Hatake Kakashi, Maito Gai, Yuuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma and Mitarashi Anko sitting around a round table in a secluded corner, drinks in hand or on the table in front of them.

Their conversation subjects were constantly changing, flowing with ease derived from continued comraderie and friendship, and eventually the subject turned towards each of the present individuals' genin squads.

"Well I was considering giving my team the chance to enter these next Chunnin exams." Started Asuma. "I feel as if they have grown and progressed a great deal. Despite the fact that they're rookie genin, at least one of them would probably make chunnin. How about you guys?"

"YOSH! ASUMA-SAN, THE TRUST YOU SHOW IN YOUR YOUNG PUPILS IS SO INSPIRING! HOW YOUTHFUL OF YOU!"

Gai's shouting was already a staple of the bar, but it still caused more than a few winces. Anko smacked Gai in the arm as she admonished.

"What've we talked about before, Gai?"

"Use my inside voice?"

"Yes, use your inside voice. So, are you entering your squad in the exams?"

Gai's slightly abashed demeanor vanished automatically at that question.

"I BELIEVE MY STUDENTS ARE READY FOR THESE EXAMS, HAVING A YEAR OF EXPERIENCE AS GENIN! I AM GREATLY CONSIDERING IT! WHAT ABOUT YOUR OWN SQUAD, MY ETERNAL RIVAL?"

More winces aside, Kakashi, who had been oddly - even for his standards - quiet, seemed to have been broken away from a daydream as he answered.

"Ah, my team isn't going to participate in these exams."

Everyone was surprised at that, but Anko was the one to speak up.

"Why not? With how much you speak of the Uzumaki's actual skills, and the Uchiha's improvement during your last mission, and the sheer fact that they survived an A-rank, you had everyone thinking that you'd be the first to nominate your team."

"Well, I did offer them the chance to enter the exams..."

 _ **-Earlier the same day-**_

 _A week after the mission in Wave, Team 7 met up at their training ground at the assigned time._

 _None of the members of team 7 had spent that week idle. Sakura had started taking her training seriously, dropping all of her stupid diets and asking her mother for help creating a balanced diet fit for a Kunoichi, while she had her father helping her with her physical conditioning. Every day she woke up early and worked herself to the bone, stopping only at lunchtime._

 _But she didn't stop there, no._

 _Knowing the fact that her chakra control was superb, despite her small reserves, Sakura started researching and learning some lower ranked genjutsu, alongside trap making and first aid for a field medic. She was seriously considering turning to a carreer as a med-nin, making use of her specific skills to complement and support her teammates. No longer would she be dead weight._

 _She also, under the supervision of her father, started polishing her taijutsu, normally trying to do so while standing vertically on walls or trees in order to help increase both her chakra reserves and control at once._

 _Given the fact that she had been training seriously for the first time in her entire life, it wasn't surprising that she looked fatigued, her hair in disarray, and a few bags under her eyes. But despite all of that, a fire burned strong inside her eyes. An unexpected side effect of her fatigue was the fact that she was so tired that she didn't even muster the energy to pine for Sasuke, which the Avenger saw very much as a positive._

 _Said avenger himself had also not been idle for that time. After his run-in with Rock Golem, he had been awakened to a few facts._

 _One, confidence was fine, but arrogance was not. Do not let yourself become overconfident just because your skills are superior than your enemy's on paper, people have a tendency to be unpredictable and suprising, so keeping your attention up is a must._

 _Two, focusing on your strengths was fine, but rounding out your other skills, and creating new ones was extremely useful. Had he used ninja tools properly, if he had a weapon, or water or lightning jutsu under his belt, he probably wouldn't have needed to be saved, so widening his horizons was a definite focus. Other than that, it was his endurance. Despite the fact that his enemy was slow as a sack of bricks for the most part, except for that last punch which he still called bullshit on, his stamina so outmatched his that it wasn't even funny. Sasuke had taken to long distance jogging to help build endurance._

 _Third, THE SHARINGAN ISN'T INVINCIBLE! He had awakened his sharingan, but he still would have died had it not been for Gozu's, and indirectly Naruto's, interferance! Despite being a great tool and a handy power to possess, if the owner wasn't good, the eyes were like pearls before a swine._

 _Granted, the years of walking around like an entitled prince and god's gift to the village that had increased his natural arrogance had not just up and disappeared, but he would work on it gradually._

 _Naruto was just lounging against a wooden post, seeming as cool and colected as they had come to expect him to be. Unknown to them was the fact that this Naruto was an elaborate blood clone, and they hadn't seen the original in a very long time, before even the mission to Wave._

 _Despite the fact that this Naruto was just a blood clone, he still had used the week to fully explore the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan'_ house _' , finding various pictures of his parents, his nursery and all of his baby toys, his parents' offices which were full of possible seal and jutsu ideas, rare books, scrolls depicting different skills and even their diaries._

 _It was more than just a bit awkward reading some of the things his mother wrote, but at least he know where his perverted nature come from. That and blackmail on various shinobi starting from their academy days, based on embarassing situations that they happened to have been caught in._

 _The Uzumaki really had the devil's own luck in regards to bets and gambles._

 _Seeing the thought processes of his parents both as professionals, enthusiasts in their preferred shinobi arts and as regular people with regular lives made him feel a deeper connection to them._

 _All of this resulted in Naruto now constantly radiating an aura of calm confidence and determination, as he strived to live up to his parents' legacies._

 _Kakashi arrived only 15 minutes late, surprising the members of team 7 before giving each of them a sheet of paper while eye smiling at them._

 _"Well, my cute little pupils, I've been thinking for a while and I feel that you're good enough for me to enroll you in the Chunin exams."_

 _Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura each analyzed the form in their hands as Kakashi continued._

 _"These exams are going to be held in Kumo, the first stage being held in 3 weeks so you have until tomorrow this same time to decide whether you're going to enroll or not. Ja ne!"_

 _But before he could shunshin away, Sakura spoke up._

 _"Sorry Kakashi-Sensei, but I know I'm not ready for the chunnin exams. I just started taking my carreer seriously, and I'm nowhere near competent enough to not drag the team down. I want to be capable of carrying my own weight, and until I get strong enough to do so I'll have to say no to that."_

 _As she finished speaking, handing him the form back, Sasuke spoke up next._

 _"While not in the same exact situation as Sakura, I still feel like I can further improve myself so that I can survive and pass in my first chunnin exams. I'll be bowing out of this one as well."_

 _Kakashi's surprise didn't stop there as Naruto manifested himself next._

 _"Yep, that's a pass for me too. Honestly, team 7 participating in these chunnin exams would be awfully stupid. Though Konoha and Kumo aren't enemies, they're not friends either. They'd probably try to use the exam as an opportunity to finish off of harvest Sasuke's sharingan with not pollitical repercussions. It would make more sense to wait for the next exam in 6 months, as it's going to be held here in Konoha. Home field advantage, and all that. Other than that, there's the fact that I have my own shit to take care of that impossibilitate me from participating at this point in time. In 6 months I'll be ready, as will be Sasuke and Sakura, probably."_

 _The three members of team 7 met eachother's gaze before nodding, having decided on using these 6 months to properly prepare for the exams. By then, team 7 would be an elite squad and blitz through the exams so hard that the other nations wouldn't know what hit them._

 _Until then, they'd make do with training, both team and individual, while doing missions._

 _While surprised at the outcome of his news, Kakashi couldn't be any prouder than his team. Sasuke was acting humbler than ever before, accepting the fact that he still had much growth to go through, Sakura had finally gotten her head screwed on right, and Naruto was treating his teammates civilly, as they were treating him. He even seemed to have eased off on the animosity towards Sakura._

 _Today was a good day for Hatake Kakashi._

 _ **-The Swaying Leaf-**_

"And that's basically what happened."

The rest of the people around the table were in contemplative silence at that, the words and actions of Kakashi's team being more than just unexpected. They were humbling as well.

With the presence of Naruto and Sasuke on the team, Sakura as support and Kakashi as their leader, team 7 was considered the strongest genin cell in Konoha at the moment, even above more experienced genin teams like Gai's.

The fact that the best genin cell felt unprepared for the exams put things in perspective for all the other team leaders around the table, with Asuma being, once again, the first to speak up.

"You know, I feel like my team isn't ready yet. I want them to succeed on their first try, so I'll be upping their training. In 6 months, team 10 will be capable of standing alongside team 7. Mark my words Kakashi."

Kurenai nodded lightly at that.

"Indeed. Team 8 shall also beg off for now. Aside from their freshness, there's also the pollitical tension that would emerge were Hinata to get hurt while there. My students shall also have their training increased."

"YOSH! YOU ALL SHOW SUCH YOUTHFUL ATTITUDES IN YOUR CARE FOR YOUR PUPILS! I, MAITO GAI, SHALL ALSO ENROLL MY STUDENTS ONLY IN THE NEXT CHUNNIN EXAMS, IN ORDER TO GIVE THEM THE CHANCE AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF FACING YOUR SQUADS, AND THE BACKING OF OTHER LEAF TEAMS WHEN NEEDED!"

The rest of the group sweatdropped at Gai's shouted declaration, but the fire under them had already been lit. Their students were so far behind Kakashi's that in order to catch up they'd have to train twice, or three times as hard as them, seen as they too would keep growing and progressing. But, they were chosen as Jounin-sensei for a reason, and their teams would show the reason in 6 months.

 _ **-A week later, Hokage's office-**_

"Old man, I need you to induct me into ANBU."

His eyes on the serious, straight-faced Naruto, Hiruzen couldn't help the pang of guilt that rang within him. Their last few talks were less than civil, and not having the bond that he used to have with the young blonde was taxing on the old man. Naruto used to be a little ball of sunshine, proof that despite the hatred and malice that existed in the world, and even in his village, there were genuinely good people who would not allow themselves to get tainted and stay pure for the rest of their lives.

Now, with this new, cold Naruto he managed to see that it was just a fantasy, and that no person is unnaffected by such things despite how much he might have hoped so, but as they say, Hindsight is 20/20.

Having made some time by filling his pipe and lighting it, Hiruzen took a deep drag before slowly exhaling the smoke cloud. Putting his pipe down and crossing his hands under his chin, Hiruzen spoke up.

"Why? Are you not satisfied with your current spot in team 7? And would it not be better for you to use these 6 months to get used to seeing only out of one eye, so that you're not at a disadvantage during the exams? The loss of an eye is something serious, and in ANBU something that could easily get you killed in the field if you can't work around or get over."

"The why is advancement. With ANBU field service on my files it'd be easier to fast track me to Tokubetsu Jonin until I could participate in the jonin exams, and no one could try to claim favoritism or preferential treatment. Other than that, experience in ANBU will no doubt make me stronger, as I both receive standard ANBU training, trade techniques with squadmates and work field ops."

"And your team?"

"Team 7 will be using this time to mostly train. The focus of the training will be more individual than group, with group training only for the purpose of integrating our individual skills into a functional squad with actual strategy. I can simply send bood clones to take my place whenever my ANBU work got in the way. Other than training, we'll be doing at best D- and C-rank missions, and what are the odds that we'll have another one of those raise in rank? Other than that, the best way for me to get used to the single eye is to actually function with only it on the field, and I already managed for the most part."

Hiruzen's eyebrows rose at that "You know even blood clones?... Are you even here right now? When was the last time I actually saw you, Naruto?"

The Naruto in front of Sarutobi just shrugged "I may be a clone, I may not be. You'll never know. Now will I be getting my ANBU induction, or not?"

Hiruzen sighed tiredly before nodding, flaring his chakra in a specific pattern.

A blur deposited a dragon-masked ANBU kneeling in front of the old man.

"Hokage-sama, you have summoned me."

Hiruzen nodded at the not-question.

"Indeed I have, dragon. I present to you the newest member of ANBU, Uzumaki Naruto. He is getting Hokage appointment, so he's automatically ANBU. Any questions?"

"Just one." Dragon said before turning towards Naruto. "What mask shall you be using?"

"For now I'll use a black mask with an orange Uzumaki swirl in front, but I intend to earn the Wolf mask."

Two sharp intakes of breath followed that declaration, before dragon spoke in a somewhat hesitant tone.

"That's quite a big goal you set for yourself, there. Are you sure you want to go through with this? Once you're marked as a candidate, you can't turn back until the end of your service."

Naruto nodded at that.

"I'll be getting that Wolf mask sooner than you think."

Dragon nodded at that before placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and disappearing in a Shunshin, taking him directly to HQ and having his ANBU symbol tattooed on his left shoulder and his mask comissioned.

As soon as Dragon and Naruto were out of the room, Hiruzen sighed deeply. He had been doing it more often than not recently. Despite the frigid way that Naruto treated him - which he believed was completely justified - Sarutobi still saw the boy as a grandson, and seeing him shouldering all of this responsibility at once tugged at his heartstrings. Knowing that the boy had lost his childhood and innocence so early, earlier than all of his peers, as early as the children of the wartimes hurt him deeply.

And, seeing how the boy reacted at him having not told him of his burden and heritage, he could only imagine what his reaction would be to Jiraiya's appearance during his chunnin exams.

The toad sage simply intended to walk into Naruto's life and impose himself as a mainstay, acting as if he had never wronged the boy. Thoughts of Naruto's reaction at discovering that Jiraiya was his godfather made Hiruzen cringe. After 6 months of wetworks, nothing good would come from it.

 _ **-6 months Later-**_

Six months had passed since then, and various things had happened.

First of all was the fact that team 7 had gotten itself up to date. Sasuke had gotten more than just a few lightning and fire jutsu under his belt, alongside some basic water jutsu. His Shurikenjutsu and combat analysis had also flourished greatly, and his constant sparring with Kakashi and Naruto has helped him become better at his clan's taijutsu style. The constant and hardcore training had also evolved his eyes to their 3 tomoe state, giving him good precognitive abilities, the ability to copy jutsu more easily and some ocular genjutsu. He had also managed to greatly supress his arrogance, no longer functioning under the assumption of his superiority to everything and everyone. All in all, his skills left him solidly at Mid-Chunnin level.

Sakura had also worked very hard during that time. Her physical regimen allowed her to somewhat keep pace with her team, though she was still at best high-genin physical wise. Where she really grow, however, were her chakra-based and medicine skills. She had kept up with her hybrid chakra capacity/chakra control exercises and got more genjutsu and trap knowledge inside of her head, alongside with doing a 3-month course in a hospital meant for aspiring med-nin. She could now heal basic things like twists, sprains and mild to medium cuts. She could easily set a bone, fix a busted lip or nose, use a lower level of the mystic palm jutsu for diagnosis and, with the help of Haku, had learnt anatomy and incorporated pressure point and nerve cluster strikes into her fightning style. She always carried her first aid kit sealed inside a scroll, alongside her herbal ointments and remedies.

Speaking of Haku, she had been assigned to Anko and was supposed to have been her only apprentice, but after another C-turned A-rank of team 7's at Takigakure no Sato (Village hidden in the waterfall), another Kunoichi by the name of Fuu who happened to be the jinchuuriki of the 7 tails had also been brought to the village by Naruto and instated as a Genin, becoming her fellow disciple. Under Anko's tutelage, Haku polished some of the skills she already possessed before joining the village, alongside developing a real inclination towards the use of poisons. Having learnt a few torture and information extraction techniques, she could be considered a solid mid-jounin in everything but experience.

Fuu had also improved greatly under Anko. While her village tried to keep her weak out of fear and spite, causing her to initially have depended on her jinchuuriki abilities more often than not, Naruto had convinced her to relegate those skills to secret weapons for life-threatening emergencies, and helped Anko bring her to an all-around solid low-chunnin.

The other Konoha squads, having been told of the entire conversation between Kakashi and the other Jounin by their teachers themselves also found a fire lit under their asses. None of them wanted to be left behind by their peers, so they gave their all in their training and missions, progressing at a faster rate than they previously believed possible.

But most impressive of all was Naruto.

The fact that his blood clone hadn't been noticed by Kakashi and had easily sailed through another suprise A-rank was a testament to his skill.

His time in the corps was mostly straightforward and productive, with the exception of a few situations.

 _ **-3 months after induction-**_

 _"Hokage-Sama, you have summoned me?"_

 _Hiruzen had his back turned towards Dragon, watching the peaceful village through the window in his office. After a while he answered._

 _"Indeed I have, Dragon. Do you know why that is?"_

 _Not knowing why, but having a bad feeling about the situation, Dragon simply pressed forward with the conversation._

 _"No, sir."_

 _Hiruzen turned around towards Dragon, his look still calm and placid as was his tone._

 _"Are you sure, Dragon? Nothing in particular that would attract my attention?"_

 _Dragon thought for a bit before shaking his head._

 _Hiruzen's eyebrow rose as he spoke._

 _"Hmm, you know of nothing that could have possibly attracted my attention? Then please tell me..."_

 _At that moment, an inhuman amount of Killing intent filled the office, causing the four other ANBU in the room to feint in place, and making Dragon want to curl up like a little girl and sob for his mother._

 _"Why is it that Naruto's file has so many S-ranks, many of them redacted and off the books ones?"_

 _Dragon, showing why he had been chosen as an ANBU captain, managed to speak despite the danger sensor in his head blaring loudly, telling him to get the fuck out of dodge as soon as possible._

 _"Because I believed him to be ready to fulfill them."_

 _Hiruzen gave Dragon an odd look before saying one word._

 _"Explain."_

 _Feeling the killing intent lessen slightly, Dragon was eager and willing to dispell this misunderstanding._

 _"Uzumaki is, and I say this in the best possible way, a monster. When he first joined us he was already very strong, he could take 2 or 3 Elites on at the same time which is pretty damn impressive, so I had him join squad 3 and had them performing some A-ranks and lower S-ranks. The thing is, Uzumaki shows an astounding rate of growth. After a while, every mission he participated in had an increased success rate, with fewer and fewer casualties. Unlike the other agents which take at least one or two weeks of leave after the more tiring missions, as Uzumaki usually takes one day to recover, two or three to prepare his tools and then requests for another mission._

 _I thought that he was trying to push himself too hard and was eventually going to burn out, so I gave him two weeks of forced leave. For those two weeks, he barely left the training grounds. All of our instructors started getting thrashed, and it was obvious that he was going stir-crazy. Keeping a 13-almost-14 year old capable of giving the ANBU instructors and the majority of the corps a sound thrashing proved to be a good thing as it lit a fire under everyone that didn't want to be upstaged by a kid, raising our efficiency and success rate tremendously, and reducing fatalities on the field, but despite all of their efforts Naruto just kept growing stronger faster than them. I decided to send him back on the field as those conditions could actually lower staff morale after a while, and constantly fighting the same opponents could eventually stunt Uzumaki. Nowadays he only applies for S-ranks, and he's already taken out entire squads of Iwa TREMORs on his own, as well as Kumo's own special forces._

 _In another month he'll be elligible for the Wolf mask, and I have no doubt he'll be getting it. Me and Phoenix already see him as the obvious choice. In 6 months, the only ones here in the village strong enough to fight him will probably be you and Jiraiya-sama. And all this time he hasn't used his tenant's power even once. It's all him. That's why I say he's a monster._

 _Under the definition of talent in the dictionary, where the photo of Uchiha Itachi previously was, there's now a picture of Naruto. Or there should be, at least."_

 _Hiruzen, despite everything, couldn't help the bittersweet feelings rising inside of him._

 _On one hand, Naruto already reached a real of power beyond most at an extremely young age, showing his talent and his lineage, but on the other hand there was no love lost between him and the villagers. If he turned against Konoha, he could possibly become as dangerous an enemy as Orochimaru._

 _And that's not counting the fox._

 _It was truly vexing._

 _"Dragon, keep an eye on Naruto's growth, and make sure to assign him to a good squad. Try to help him create attachments to the village, show him that not everyone here is bad and that the village is worth fighting for."_

 _"Hai, Hokage-sama."_

 _"That will be all. DIsmissed."_

 _In another woosh, Dragon was gone. Hiruzen's thoughts now resolved about the possibly explosive result of the first meeting between Naruto and Jiraiya._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

Under the tutelage of experienced ANBU, and with his time on the field, added to the knowledge he built up from his parents' notes, he had turned into a real monster, and he still hadn't reached his peak. At now 14 years of age, like all of his peers, his body had just started truly maturing as he reached the midway point in puberty, which meant that from then he'd only grow stronger.

Finally, the Chunnin exams had been announced, and this time, with totally new outlooks on shinobi life and wider skillsets, Teams 7, 8, 10, Gai and Anko had finally been nominated and accepted into the chunnin exams.

But, unknown to them, events would happen during the exams that would change things greatly.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Another chapter done, and this time with what I promised! Sort of! Kind of! Next chapter is the official star of the exams, and the next page in the lives of our heroes. Stick around if you want to learn more!**

 **As always, please leave a review, and follow and favorite if you like the story! Byebye!**


	16. Chapter 16: Wolves and First Contact

**Naruto ain't mine, I'm just borrowing it!**

"I believe we all know why we're here."

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of the Village hidden in the Leaves spoke in a grave tone, his listeners with faces equally grave.

Stopping for a bit and seeing the serious looks in the faces of his audience, he took the time to analyze them.

The first one was Dragon, the ANBU commander and person in charge of the ANBU field work.

The second one was a Phoenix-masked ANBU. Phoenix was the head of ANBU on the administrative side of things, ensuring the best conditions and equipment for agents, resource alocation and everything paperwork.

After Phoenix were the Cat, Tiger and Badger masked ANBU, being the ANBU with currently the most seniority as the others elligible for the post had either retired from the stressfull lifestyle, or submitted their names to the reserve roster.

Cat was a purple-haired woman, Uzuki Yuugao. She was one of the two original foremost users of swords in the leaf in recent times, until the reveal of a certain blonde's skills.

Tiger was a man with spiky brown hair, flat, somewhat expressionless eyes and his face in a neutral look. This agent was Tenzo, also known as Yamato, former _ROOT_ operative and victim and only survivor of Orochimaru's experiments with the cells of the first Hokage in order to grant the Mokuton bloodline.

Badger was Shiranui Genma, a Jounin who was part of the fourth Hokage's personal defense squadron. He has long brown hair reaching below his ears and slightly above his shoulders, a bandana covering his head and could constantly be seen chewing on a steel senbon.

Other than them, in the room were Nara Shikaku, head of the Nara clan and Jounin commander, and the council of elders, Shimura Danzo, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura.

His short analysis over, Hiruzen nodded towards Dragon before finding himself a seat, giving the man the floor.

Dragon stood up, positioning himself to be seen by all in the room before he started speaking.

"We are here gathered to make a very important decision. We are here to vote on a possible recipient of the ANBU _Wolf_ mask.

We all know that this is a big thing. The Wolf mask represents the pinnacle of skill and efficiency in the ranks. It is the only restricted mask aside from Dragon and Phoenix, but unlike those who can be directly appointed by the Hokage, the Wolf mask has to be voted upon.

The reason why is because the recipient of the Wolf mask is considered the literal best agent in ANBU for the time they manage to mantain the mask. Any possible recipient of the Wolf mask must be nominated by Myself or Phoenix after a period of observation and evaluation. Mission results, strength and skill level, time spent on active duty and on the field, conduct and comportment, all of these things are considered when making the choice about whom to nominate."

Koharu interrupted Dragon to speak up.

"That's all well and good, but please spare us the history lesson. As Hiruzen said, we all know why we're here. You and Phoenix are going to outline your candidates for Wolf and then we'll be voting on it. Can we get on with this?"

Dragon shook his head at that.

"You misunderstand. The reason this is a momentous occasion, different than any others, is because both me and Phoenix saw only one person who, based on all his results, could feasibly take the mantle of Wolf. We nominated the same individual, and only him."

Shikaku broke in at that.

"Must be a pretty special person to get such consideration from both bosses while sweeping the rest of the competition. Who is it?"

Knowing that more than a few feathers would get ruffled and noise would be made, Dragon prepared to speak, but he was cut off, uncharacteristically, by the quiet Phoenix.

"We have nominated Uzumaki Naruto for the role of Wolf."

One beat. Two beats.

"Wasting village resources and the time of the elders to play a practical joke is in very poor taste, and it shall lead to sanctions!" Koharu said strongly, only to see the rest of the people in the room stone faced serious. Still, she kept on.

"I mean honestly, you could have chosen a different name and it would've been more probable. The _boy_ is nowhere good enough to even be in ANBU, much less receive the wolf mask! Were he in ANBU, we'd know!"

Hiruzen responded to that.

"He is in ANBU, Koharu. I drafted him into the program myself and he's been serving for these 6 whole months."

"Hiruzen, why wren't we, the elders consulted on this issue? You know we would have not allowed this mockery to happen! That child in ANBU? Preposterous!"

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed at that, before he spoke in a chilling tone.

"Koharu. First of all, I am your Hokage. Failure to adress me respectfully as such will be considered treason and you shall be executed. Second of all... WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO TRY TO USURP THE AUTHORITY OF THE HOKAGE? WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, PERIOD!?

THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL OF ELDERS IS, IN MOST CASES, ADVISORY AT BEST! ANBU INDUCTIONS ARE ONE OF SUCH CASES! I CAN CHOOSE WHO I DAMN WELL SEE TALENT IN TO JOIN THE CORPS, AND YOUR WORDS CONTRADICTING MY ORDERS SHALL BE CONSIDERED TREASONOUS, AND AN ATTEMPT AT USURPING THE POWER OF THE HOKAGE, AND YOU WILL EITHER HAVE YOUR HEAD CHOPPED OFF OR BE TOSSED INTO THE DEEPEST, DARKEST PIT WE CAN FIND! ARE WE UNDERSTOOD?"

By the end Koharu was visibly shaking, as was Homura. Having been given certain level of consideration they saw themselves as more than they truly were, advisors. It was time to remind them of who ran the show in Konoha.

Danzo remained silent through all of this. Hiruzen, after calming down, spoke.

"Dragon has told us about who they and Phoenix believed to be Wolf material. Now, he would be giving us a why, no?"

Dragon nodded at that, handing out dossiers to all the seated people before resuming his speech.

"As you can see, those dossiers hold his confidential record of ANBU service. He has in 6 months broken all known records and completed over 25 S-rank missions, this not counting the first S-rank he completed which was, coincidentally, his own first mission as an academy graduate. 145 A-ranks, 250 B-ranks, and with his genin team, 23 C-ranks and 41 D-ranks. In all S-ranks he participated in, the number of KIA assets was 0. His success rate is a whopping 100%, with no friendly casualties, and his behaviour during missions is professional to the extreme. Even towards those who display open hatred or other such emotions aimed at him, he shows a degree of cordiality and respect that should be mantained throughout the mission, though he simply dismisses them as unimportant as soon as they touch down.

And, if his mission records did not tell you this, then the training reports will. He is very, very strong.

He is the one to have spent the most time in the pit, in the training rooms and with the ANBU instructors, and he's reached a level where they can't beat him any longer. He's solidly S-rank, and I can honestly say that a fight between him and someone of the caliber of Hokage-sama or Jiraiya of the Sannin would be an honest tossup. And all that without even once tapping into his tenant's power.

There is only one point of contention with him. He cannot see how much of a genius he is. Yes, he does put in hour after hour, day after day and so on and so forth into training, but he does not understand the fact that others might do the same and not get the same results as him. In his mind, his strength is a result only of his hard work, blood, sweat and tears, and anyone who works as hard as him would inevitably achieve his level. Anyone who does not is either lazy, or a moron.

Remember the fact that I said ' _anyone who works as hard as him_ '. Despite everything else, he is still rational in recognizing the fact that not everyone can put up with the amount of effort he puts into growing stronger. Those are some of the reasons we chose to stick with Uzumaki for Wolf."

As everyone else analyzed the dossiers, giving them 2nd and 3rd looks, Shikaku spoke up.

"Those are some. What are the others?"

Phoenix was the one to answer this one.

"Resource managements. His weapons, his tags, bombs, kunai, shuriken, all of it is perfectly mantained and taken care of. He recovers every projectile he can, scraps any unsalvageables for base materials for new ones, and he honestly only really uses our Kunai and Shuriken. Other than those, his mask and armor are the only things he got from the program. He tends to use his own tools, which cut down on costs, whithout any notable negative impact on the mission. The gear that he receives monthly, as per protocol, that he does not use, is re-distributed by him to the squad he is assigned to go on mission with next. More than once, the extra gear saved the lives of some of our operatives.

There's also the fact that he brings out the best in our operatives. For most, seeing a young, fresh recruit outperform them lights a fire under them, making them pet even more effort into their training, and sharpening their focus. We haven't had such success from the ANBU corps since the days of the 2nd Hokage.

Plus, he tends to bring out the best in people who open themselves up to him. The agents that were friendly, or at least neutral to him towards the start have had a marked increase in morale. People who were on the verge of burning out, or felt trapped in ANBU life and unable to connect with others in meaningful, emotional ways find themselves included in group activities, friendly reunions, picnics and so on and so forth, easing them off the edge during off time and making sure they're up and ready when they have to act. He created esteem in the hearts of those people, and even a healthy degree of grudging respect on his detractors, mostly by reppeatedly saving their lives at the cost of possible physical harm.

Those are the reasons that make mebelieve in Uzumaki as Wolf material."

Everyone in the room seemed impressed at that declaration, with the exception of Koharu who was scowling at what she expected the results of the vote to be by now.

When Hiruzen called for a show of hands on whether to reward Naruto with the Wolf mask or not the only vote cast against was Koharu's, with Danzo abstaining his. Everyone else voted yes, making Uzumaki Naruto the newest Wolf ANBU.

 _ **-Later that week-**_

"I can't believe that after those hellish 6 months we finally get to participate in the Chunnin tournament. After we make Chunnin we can simply ease back and relax, recover from those hellish days."

Sakura eyed Ino as if she had just said the stupidest thing in the history of stupid as they walked around the streets of Konoha.

"Ino, what're you on about? If we trained this hard just to make chunnin, in order to survive as chunnin and try to move beyond that rank we'll have to keep training even harder!"

"What the hell happened to you, Sakura? You're starting to sound like that weirdo in the green spandex! You're even starting to look like him from all the training you do! Look at your mannish arms and legs! Nothing like my smooth, supple curves!"

A smooth voice from behind them surprised both Kunoichi.

"I personally think the term you were searching for was athletic. I rather enjoy Sakura's physique as it is right now, it speaks of hard work and effort without detracting from her womanly charms. Her waist has never looked better, her thighs could crush rocks and honestly, her ass looks so good that it almost makes you drool."

Both girls turned around only to see Naruto a few paces behind them.

He was wearing a tight blue shirt of a stretchy material that left his muscles on display, a pair of knee-length tan shorts with black leg sleeves under and a burnt orange sash, and his blonde hair with some of the original spikiness at the sides, which reached his shoulders, the bangs which stayed just above the eyes, and the spiky ponytail in the back which was now reaching his wonderfully toned ass (Which they have definitely _not_ ogled at every possible occasion).

Ino blushed at seeing the delicious piece of hunk in front of her, while Sakura blushed from both that and what Naruto had said. 6 months ago he used to write her off as an unimportant entity, uselessness and stupidity incarnate, and now he so openly complimented her!

If she had to be honest, ever since he had shown his real self and stopped trying to chase after her, Sakura felt an emptiness inside of her. Training seriously made her forget the emptiness, and her crush on Sasuke, but getting complimented by Naruto made feelings and sensations flare in her heart that she hadn't felt before, even during the rare times where Sasuke paid her attention.

' _Am I... Falling in love with Naruto?_ '

Ino's thoughts were different than those.

' _Ohmygodohmygodohmygod Naruto looks so hot! Kami how did I never see this before? Those arms! Those abs! That waist! That ass!... He likes athletic girls that work hard? Well from now on, I'm going to be the hardest worker in Konoha!_ '

At that thought a chill overcame her, as she felt as if a breeze had just whispered ' _Youth_ ' into her ear, but the sounds of shouting broke her from her thoughts. The three genin dashed around a corner to watch an unexpected scene.

"Kankuro, you idiot! It's just a kid, he didn't mean anything by it, put him down!"

"This brat ran into me, so I'm going to teach him a lesson and you'll stay out of this, Temari!"

Sakura and Ino intended to intervene, but Naruto stopped them and shushed them before turning towards the scene, as if expecting something.

Kankuro was manhandling a child, lifting it by the collar of their shirt. This child had brown, unruly hair, was wearing a yellow shirt with a leaf symbol in front, a pair of grey, knee shorts, blue sandals and a blue scarf. The child was Sarutobi Konohamaru, grandson of the third Hokage, though neither Kankuro nor Temari knew of this.

"Goddamnit Kankuro, what is wrong with you!? The kid even apologized and everything!"

"He called me a crossdressing weirdo!"

"Well maybe if you stopped nicking my makeup!..."

"It's not makeup, it's war paint! War! Paint!"

Before their squabble could continue the sound of steel whistling through the air gained their attention and forced Kankuro to let go of Konohamaru's shirt, as the boy had drawn a Kunai from somewhere on his person and swung it in an arch that would have shredded his wrists.

To his further surprise, a smoke bomb suddenly erupted at his feet, but before he could move away he felt various sharp and pointy objects pressing onto his person. One was at the base of the spine, at the back, the other was in the front, at liver level, and the final kunai was poised to carve out his throat.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed Konohamaru and two other kids.

One of them was a girl with orange coloured hair in twintails, a perpetual blush on her cheeks, a maroon belly shirt over a short-sleeved light purple undershirt that reached the waist, tan shorts and blue sandals. This was Moegi, and she was pressing the kunai against Kankuro's front, at liver level.

The other one was a boy with brown, shaggy hair, a pair of round-framed glasses and a runny nose. He was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt, and shorts and sandals reminiscent of Moegi's. He was holding the kunai pressed at Kankuro's spine.

The only common trait between the three of them was the black armband with a red swirl in the middle that they all wore.

Before things could progress further, Naruto's voice rang out.

"Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, stand down!"

The three children automatically stowed away their Kunai before running to go meet Naruto.

"Naruto-niichan, we're glad you're here! A crossdressing weirdo tried to hit me just because I bumped into him, even after I apologized!"

Naruto nodded lightly at that.

"I've been keeping an eye on the situation, Kono. You, Moegi and Udon dealt with the situation as I expected you to, but you did not even focus on the blonde girl which could have backed him up, nor did you notice me or the two girls with me wearing leaf headbands, which could have given you support. You still need to put some more work into it."

The three kids looked sad for an instant before a determined look shone in their eyes.

Moegi was the one to speak up this time.

"You're right, Naruto-nii. We're going to train even harder to make up for this!"

The other two nodded resolutely, and as they started running away, Naruto called out.

"By the way... I'm proud of you guys. You've come a long way from when we first started training, and I know that you can become even better."

At those words the fire in their eyes intensified even as huge grins brightened their faces before they ran off.

As they left, Naruto's slight smile was replaced by a frown as he looked at Kankuro.

"You do know that it is considered rude to go to other people's villages and beating up their children, right? Not to mention the international incident that you could have caused by assaulting the grandson of the Third Hokage."

Kankuro started sweating at that, before he was hit with a wave of Killing Intent that almost made him throw up from the blonde as he kept speaking.

"Aside from the already despicable act of picking on children, you were picking on my cute disciples. _**That is unnaceptable**_."

The dark tone brought chills to the spines of everyone present, even as it shot a wave of arousal through Ino, Sakura and Temari.

" _ **Pull this kind of shit again and I'll send you back to Suna in a matchbox, are we understood?**_ "

Kankuro nodded franctically at that, doing his best not to piss himself.

"By the way, if you did not want to be noticed you should really hold back your own Killing intent."

No one knew what Naruto meant, or whom he was speaking to until a swirl of sand in front of him deposited a redhead with a brown gourd on his back, no eyebrows, thick, black outlines around his eyes reminiscent of a Tanuki and the kanji for love above his left eye. His face was impassive, emotionless even as he spoke.

"Kankuro, you are an embarassment to our village."

"But Gaara..."

"Shut up or I'll kill you."

Kankuro and Temari blanched at that, even as Gaara turned to adress the leaf nin.

"I apologize for my brother's actions and can only promise that they will not repeat themselves."

Sakura spoke up at that.

"You're here for the chunnin exams, right?"

Gaara nodded minutely at that "Correct. My name is Gaara, my brother in the catsuit is Kankuro, and my sister with the fan is Temari. We're Suna's only team in these exams."

"For Suna to send only one team means that they have full confidence on all of your skills. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the pink haired girl to my left is Haruno Sakura, and the blonde to my right is Yamanaka Ino."

Having said that, Naruto turned to Temari and unashamedly gave her an appraising look before smiling softly and speaking.

"It seems that beautiful flowers bloom even in the harsh desert sands."

Temari blushed lightly at that, while Kankuro went in denial.

' _This can't be happening! First, three brats almost kill me, then this dude comes out of nowhere and scares the crap out of me. Then, after threatening to kill me he starts flirting with my older sister? This isn't real, I'm probably just suffering from a heatstroke back at home and having a fever dream._ '

Temari's thoughts were on a very different vein.

' _Dear Kami he's gorgeous! Those eyes, that face, the body, the hair! He even has cute whisker marks! And he's dangerous, such a bad boy!... I like bad boys._ '

As her blush receded Temari smirked at Naruto before speaking.

"Not so bad yourself. Seems like not all Konoha men are treehugging pansies. You're a bad boy, and I like bad."

Naruto grinned dangerously at that.

"Oh you have no idead. Unfortunately I have to leave now, but I'll be seeking you out soon."

That said, Naruto turned around and started walking off, Sakura and Ino following suit while her minds tried comprehending what had just happened.

"Are you going to compete in the Chunnin exams as well?"

Gaara's question made Naruto stop mid-step before answering.

"Yes. We will be meeting eachother there, mister one."

The three sand siblings stiffened visibly at that evan as Naruto walked off leisurely.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Another one bites the dust! Another chapter done, and it only took me a few hours, 3 different rewrittes and a glass of water! Overall, not a bad turnout! I've redeemed Sakura and Sasuke so far, as I have Ino. Sand team gets introduced, but I'll be introducing some others later. Some teams you will know, others will be OC's as is norm.**

 **As always, please leave a review, and if you enjoy the story, a follow and/or favorite. It really helps spread it around. Ja ne!**


	17. Chapter 17: Exams of paper and tonsils

_**Disclaimer: Blah blah not mine blah me no make money blah**_

"Well, this is the first step into our future."

Naruto and Sasuke agreed with Sakura's statement as they stepped into the Academy, intent on going to room 302 as they had been instructed to. On the second floor they all noticed a somewhat shoddy genjutsu on one of the door numbers, reading 302 when it was actually door 202. They watched as a green spandex-clad teen faked being weak and thrown around a bit by the chunnin at the door before slipping away discreetly, going up the stairs in order to reach the 3rd floor. As soon as they stepped into room 302 they noticed the other leaf genin already talking amongst themselves.

Ino was the one to spot them and called out animatedly.

"Naruto-kun, we're over here! Come join us!"

The other genin all turned towards team 7 who leisurely and confidently strolled towards them, Hinata's blush at seeing Naruto's getup going into astronomical levels. She seemed to be on the verge of passing out, and only the 6 months of intense, gloves-off training from Kurenai helped her keep standing.

Naruto spoke up for team 7 in a cheery tone.

"Yo! Seems like our entire graduating class is going at the exams together. Try not to die, people!"

Everyone sweatdropped at that said in such a cheery, unpreoccupied tone as if it weren't something important. Naruto continued, this time locking his gaze on Hinata and speaking in a flirty tone.

"That adorable blush on you is adorable. Corrupting you would be so sinfully delicious..."

Hinata squeaked and burned even brighter, hiding her mouth behind her jacket's long sleeves while stammering something indecipherable out. Before Kiba could speak up angrily in the defense of his teammate and not so secret crush, a bespectacled, grey-haired teen a few years their senior in a leaf headband spoke up.

"You do know you're attracting a lot of attention, right? In these exams, that is really bad."

The rookies let their attention shift to the rest of the room only to feel a pressure as if the entirety of the room wanted to kill them. While most of the rookies locked up in fear at the killing intent, Sasuke and Sakura were a bit more resistant after their training with Kakashi which involved withstanding increasingly opressive amounts of Killing intent, but they were not unnaffected.

Naruto, on the other hand, seemed unimpressed.

"You're trying to intimidate me with this? This... This is pitiful! Less than nothing!"

The foreign teams were starting to get angry at the blonde's boastful, disrespectful Nature, but before anyone could do or say anything they felt a petrifying fear encompassing them. It was as if the cold hand of death was slowly, almost lazily curling around their heart, ready to tear it apart while knowing there was nothing they could do. They were feeling killing intent at a whole different level.

" **This** " Naruto started " **Is real killing intent. My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I promise you, if you try to use this pitiful excuse of killing intent on me I will slaughter all of you where you stand. Are we understood?** "

There were many nervous nods from the competition even as the majority was stupified at the fact that a rookie could be this dangerous and threatening. Amidst the overal whispering and shuddering of the mass of chunnin hopefuls, a certain blonde from Kumo was having an inner conversation.

" _ **Jesus, Kit, that felt... Amazing! For one so young to so effortlessly comand the fear of his enemies... That was so manly! Add to that the fact that he's gorgeous and there's no reason for you not to claim him! With your flexibility you could use that position with a stool and a ladder...**_ "

" _Goddamnit Matatabi, stop it you pervert!_ "

Nii Yugito, the Jinchuuriki of the 2 tailed demon cat blushed heavily even as she berated her tenant. The perverted cat was always trying to fill her head with sex-related nonsense, pointing out possible mates and the things she'd do to all of them. All of them were scandalous, and some of them she wasn't even sure were possible.

" _ **Oh stop being such a wet blanked, I could almost physically hear the moisture seeping into your panties! The thought of such a dangerous-feeling mate... Kami!**_ "

" _And whose fault do you think it is? These reactions are involuntary and they're because of your instincts bleeding over to me! I am in no way interested in him!_ "

" _ **...You don't even believe yourself when you think that. Just go after him, kit. Make use of your womanly charms, show him your catlike flexibility, kick him around a bit to show him you're not weak and then eat him up like we want to!**_ "

" _Like YOU want to, more like! Stop bothering me!_ "

As Yugito had that mental conversation, another one was occuring around her.

"That was really cool." Came from Samui, another blonde from Kumo. Unlike Yugito's long ponytail, Samui kept her hair in an asymetrical bob, longer on the sides and shorter in the back. Unlike Samui's generous B cups, Samui had a pair of solid D's which had the unfortunate tendency of causing her shoulder and back pains. While Yugito had dark brown, seemingly pupilless eyes, Yugito had light-blue eyes, and her behaviour was centered mostly around calm composure.

"Yes, that was really something." Came from Karui, a Dark skinned redhead, with exotic amber-coloured eyes. Karui was a member of team Darui, alongside Samui and Omoi, a pessimistic, also dark skinned, white-haired sword user who constantly had a lollipop inside of his mouth.

"That guy was really dangerous! What if he wasn't a genin, but really an undercover ANBU with a mission to eliminate all of the foreign squads and deprive our countries of Chunnin, crippling us before his country procceeded to try and defeat the other nations and annex them into his empire?"

Karui elbowed Omoi in the gut, stopping his train of thought.

"You idiot! There's no way an ANBU member would be in the Chunnin exams! That's just way too unrealistic?"

A few seats below them Naruto seemed to stifle a chuckle, though no one noticed.

"ANBU or not, that display was really amazing! It's making me burn up!" came from Atsui, Samui's brother and also a sword user whose entire personality circulated around hotness, in the non-sexual way.

"Amazing is the best word to use. That guy's chakra is off the charts!" came from C, the final member of Team B, the disciples of the 8-tail jinchuuriki killer B. Yugito, Atsui and C had been acting as a squad for a bit longer than team Darui, and they had been held back from the previous exams in order to show in the finals that they could be more effective than the last loyal uchiha and his sharingan, securing more business from potential clients. Basically all of the villages had done this, holding back their most promising genin and putting them through grueling training as soon as they heard that the Uchiha's team would be attending only the next exams. It was basically an international dick measuring contest, showing off the best genin so the clients chose them and to establish their positions as the five great villages.

A few rows away from them, a team from Kiri was talking amongst eachother.

"Is that him?"

"Yes, that somewhat matches the description that Zabuza-sama gave."

"So we have to make contact and deliver the message? Sounds pretty easy."

Away from all of the foreigner chatter, Naruto spoke up.

"Oh, Haku, Fuu. You made it."

Both girls blushed as they saw what Naruto was wearing, with Haku having to fight off a nosebleed at the thoughts that emerged.

Ever since they had joined the shinobi ranks in leaf they had started spending as much time as possible with Naruto, despite his busy schedule with team 7, their missions and team training. They theselves had gotten quite busy studying under Anko and preparing for the exams, and were very thankful that Naruto took the time from his personal training to help them improve as well. By now Haku was solidly a Jounin, while Fuu was borderline, being 2 of the 5 strongest genin in leaf at the moment, alongside Naruto, Rock Lee and one other.

Haku was the one who answered.

"Yes, we were held back for a bit in an altercation in the second floor, but we're good."

Naruto nodded at Haku before turning to Fuu and giving her a heart melting smile.

"How about you, Fuu? How're you today?"

The green haired girl felt an intense blush blooming on her face, as did basically all other girls in the room, at Naruto's smile, but the fact that it was directed towards her made her feel even warmer and fuzzier. She spoke in a blissful tone.

"I'm just fine, Naruto-kun."

Naruto chuckled lightly at the expected response.

Suddenly Sakura spoke up.

"Naruto, why do you have a genjutsu on your face?"

"Ah, you noticed it. It's just something minor, makes sure people don't focus on my left eye."

Sakura blinked owlishly at that before face palming.

"And I just had to bring that to people's attentions. Sorry, didn't remember."

Naruto waved her off easily.

"Don't worry, I've been using it so long that it's not a wonder you forgot I even lost it, but someone else would've noticed it eventually."

Naruto dropped the genjutsu, revealing a black eyepatch with a thick golden outline, and a white stylized skull branded on it.

Temari, who had been discreetly paying attention to their conversation alongside everyone else in the room after his display just had to blush at that.

' _Gods above, that just makes him look like even more of a bad boy! Maybe after this, I could drag him off to an empty classroom and... Bad! Bad Temari!_ '

The reveal of the lack of a left eye had mixed reactions.

Some felt galvanized by it, seeing it as a weakness to exploit in him and reducing the amount of fear they had started feeling for him, while others felt even more intimidated.

Honestly, even his eyepatch looked menacing, with a fucking skull of all things. How were they supposed to not be afraid?

Kabuto, the silver-haired bespectacled Genin decided that he was tired of being ignored, so he sighed dramatically before saying.

"I guess you don't want to know what info I have on the shinobi in the room, then."

Naruto knew it was bait, but in order to possibly get more info on enemies and to keep others from biting and possibly fucking things up, and preparing his team for whom he saw as the biggest threats in the exam, he spoke up.

"If you're that well informed, then tell me what you have on Sabaku no Gaara and Rock Lee."

Sasuke spoke up at that.

"And Uzumaki Naruto."

Kabuto's mumbled 'Impudent brats' as he shuffled through a few cards was ignored by all before he pulled one of them and let chakra flow into it.

"First we have Sabaku no Gaara, Suna genin. Has his siblings as teammates, and uses various sand-based jutsu. Has completed 0 D-rank, 35 C-rank and, oh wow, 10 B-rank missions. He's come out of them all with not one scratch on his person.

Next is Rock Lee... Konoha genin, 1 and a half year of service as genin. Graduated as the dead last of his academy class, unable to use jutsu, yet he's rumoured to have generally High-chunnin to low-jounin level taijutsu. His teammates are Hyuuga Neji, the Hyuuga Genius of his generation, and Higurashi Tenten, a budding weapons mistress, all under Maito Gai, an elite Jounin on pair with Kakashi of the Sharingan and taijutsu specialist. Their team has completed 40 D-rank and 32 C-rank missions.

And finally Uzumaki Naruto... Holy shit."

That exclamation had literally everyone in the room leaning in to hear more, all pretenses of stealth and discretion forgotten.

"Was the dead last for his entire run in the academy before beating all previously established records in the final exam. Has completed 41 D-ranks, 23 C-ranks, 1 A-rank, and an S-rank which, curiously, he fulfilled mere hours after getting his headband! Is said to be a swordsman on par with Momochi Zabuza of the 7 swordsmen of the mist, a stupidly high affinity for water jutsu and off the charts stealth. He is rumored to have never been seen fighting at full strength, despite the fact that he supposedly dispatched of 3 high A-rank nin the level of Hatake Kakashi, almost simultaneously."

With the exception of Team 7 and Team Anko who already knew of this, everyone saw Naruto in a new light. Ignoring the mood, Kabuto kept speaking.

"I have more on the other contestants if you want to know, with the exception of the hidden sound nin. They're a fairly new, minor village with no previous exam participation, and are basically unimportant and the lesser threats in the room. So, any more questions?"

Before anyone could say anything, a hunched, bandage-wrapped guy with a headband with a musical sign dashed at Kabuto and swung a gauntlet-clad fist at his face, which Kabuto effortlessly dodged.

"See, told you, unimpor-..."

His sentence stopped as his vision swam, his glassed cracked and he fell to the side and threw up on the floor.

Said person spoke up.

"Unimportant? Lesser threat? Be careful about what you said, or you'll end up worse than this."

Before anything else could be said, a harsh voice broke in.

"Break apart right now! Any more unsanctioned fights and you're disqualified, no matter the reason! Now to your seats, brats!"

Everyone found a seat before the man, wearing a black trenchcoat and bandana, black pants and a similarly coloured shirt and black sandals made his way to the whiteboard at the front of the room. Said man was tall and looked dangerous, two scars covering his face, one on each side.

"I am Morino Ibiki, Jounin of Konoha and proctor of the first stage of the chunnin exams. This first stage is going to be a written test, with a few rules. First, the test is going to be composed of 10 questions. 9 Of them you will answer now, and the 10th later on. Everyone starts with 10 points, and every wrong or blank answer loses you a point. Being caught cheating costs you 2 points. Get caught cheating three times and you're out of the room. If one member of your team is disqualified, the whole team is out, as the final grade of the team is cumulative, meaning the grades of all team members get pooled together. You have 2 hours to finish the test. Of these 2 hours, 110 minutes will be spent answering the 9 questions, with the 10th at the last ten minutes. Now, Begin!"

Everyone flipped the papers on their individual desks before a few muttered curses could be heard.

' _Oh, isn't that interesting?_ ' Naruto thought ' _These questions are definitely not chunnin material. They're way too advanced, and getting 3 chances to cheat... Oh, Ibiki you crafty bastard!_ '

Naruto grinned massively before he started writting down his answers.

' _Well, just because I figured it out doesn't mean I can't put effort into actually doing this._ '

In 10 minutes Naruto had finished his test and flipped it over before laying his head down on the desk after signaling a chunnin and saying.

"Wake me up in time for the 10th question please."

And like that he fell asleep on top of his sheet of paper.

 _ **-100 minutes later-**_

"Time's up, you maggots! Pencils down! It's time for me to lay down the law for the 10th question!"

Naruto lazily raised his head from his desk, seeing a significantly emptier classroom than before.

' _They dropped like flies. Ibiki is playing rough._ '

"Now, the rules for the 10th question. First of all, you can choose whether to take the tenth question or not, but if you don't take it you're automatically booted from the room."

Temari spoke up at that.

"Then of course we'll all take the question!"

Ibiki chuckled Ominously as he released tiny amounts of Killing intent, not enough for the genin to notice, but enough to create tension in the room, as he spoke.

"If you decide to take the 10th question and get it wrong, your whole team is permanently barred from the chunnin exams. Just one team member fails, and you won't be finishing this exam, nor attending any future others!"

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

Kiba's outraged shout was met with general assent from the rest of the room, while Ibiki simply shrugged.

"I can. I'm the proctor, I make the rules. It's just your bad luck that you met me in your very first, and possibly last, chunnin exams. You have 5 minutes to decide on whether you take the question or the end of the 5 minutes, you won't be able to make a different choice."

The level of tension in the room kept ramping up before the first person, an Iwa Genin, raised his hand.

"I'm sorry but I can't do this."

He and his team were all escorted out of the room, but his action sparked a mass of fearful resignations. Soon enough the 5 minutes passed and Ibiki spoke up.

"The five minutes to choose are up, but I'm feeling generous so I'll be giving you all one last chance to give up, and maybe make it to chunnin in the future by meeting a proctor that isn't me."

When he saw that no one else intended to leave the room, Ibiki clapped his hands twice, causing two of the proctoring chunnin to close and lock the door, making more than one person gulp. Everyone was nervous as they waited for the 10th question to be anounced as Ibiki spoke.

"To all the remaining genin in the room... You pass!"

"WHAT!?"

Once again, Kiba.

Before Ibiki could respond, Naruto spoke up.

"Oh calm the fuck down, Kiba. You've already made it through, why question the proctor any further? But, just in case you're truly curious about it, there was never a 10th question in the first place."

Ibiki walked up behind Naruto, his shadow hanging over him ominously as he spoke.

"Oh? And how would you happen to know about that?"

Naruto shrugged, completely ignoring the threatening tone and the attempt at intimidation before speaking freely.

"The first part of the exam wasn't about the knowledge we possessed. It was a test of information gathering, hence the Chunnin plants in the room that stayed until you announced the 10th question and then bowed out. The fact that being caught cheating was only a point deduction instead of instantly being desqualified made it a bit on the nose there, Ibiki. You were giving us 2 chances to fail in information gathering before the 3rd one alerted an enemy and got us killed.

If the first part of the exam wasn't centered around the information that we already had, why would the second one be? What could be worth enough to hinge a whole test, and possibly a carreer, on? The answer was pretty simple. Guts.

Were you willing to possibly sacrifice your and your team's carreers on one question you had no idea about whether you would get right or not? And, in practical terms, were you willing to do a mission with little to no information, possibly endangering your and your team's lives if you knew it was for the good of the village? If your answer was anything other than yes, then you don't get to become a chunnin until your find your resolve."

Ibiki nodded, impressed at the analysis.

"Correct. As a chunnin you will get access to higher ranked missions, B and A-ranked, which could greatly influence the standing and safety of the village. Hesitating could mean damaging the village in almost irrepairable fashion, be it reputation-wise or something else."

Ibiki punctuated that statement by removing his bandana, revealing a heavily scarred, bald head.

"I got these when I was captured by enemy shinobi during a mission. Our information was deficient, and my teammates got killed. I was tortured for two weeks until a rescue force managed to extract me. These are the kind of things you can expect from Chunnin work. No more babysitting, walking dogs and painting fences. You'll be facing life-threatening situations which you may be unable to get out of unscathed, or at all."

The mood in the room was somber, and as Ibiki prepared to speak again, a black blur slammed through the window, revealing two kunai jammed into a wall revealing a banner which read ' _ **Proctor of the second stage, the sexy and single Mitarashi Anko!**_ '

A purple haired figure wearing a revealing mesh shirt and a tan miniskirt, with only a tan trenchcoat preserving her modesty landed gracefully right under the banner. The figure was Mitarashi Anko, Tokubetsu Jounin of Konoha and the teacher of Haku and Fuu. She looked at the assembled students only to see three cards sporting numbers, one in Haku's hands sporting a 7, one in Fuu's sporting a 9 and one in Naruto's sporting an 8.

Completely forgetting herself, Ankou pouted and whined.

"24? You totally robbed me! I deserved at least one ten!"

Naruto shook his head at that.

"You made your entrance way too early, and you expected the banner to do the talking for you, yet did not write something more engaging in it. The only reason I even gave you a 9 is because you're totally smoking hot. Plus, it's the amount of times I could make your toes curl all the way into your throat in half an hour."

That last comment drew drools and blushes from most people in the room, though Anko only grinned insanely before looking at Ibiki.

"I like this brat. Reminds me of him at his age. Still... Ibiki, there are way too many contestants! You're going soft in old age!"

"I'M NOT THAT OLD! I'M ONLY 38!"

"My point exactly, old man. Doesn't really matter, by the time I'm done with them they'll be cut down by half."

Here she turned to adress the entire room.

"Meet me at training ground 44 in 15 minutes or you're out!"

Her piece said, Anko vanished in a Shunshin. Less than 5 seconds after her, Team 7 and her own team showed up in shunshins as well.

"Well well, looks like the little kiddos know a few tricks that I haven't taught them." She said while giving Haku and Fuu vicious grins, making them sweat profusely at that. Fuu was the one to speak up.

"Well, Naruto-kun taught us in his off time..."

"Oh, so you got extra training? Was mine not enough? Guess that we'll be upping the intensity when the exams are over, no?"

At that declaration both girls paled incredibly, a bit of green managing to creep into their faces.

"And you, brat. What you said back there in the classroom... Were you speaking from experience, or just boasting? Do you even know what your piping serves for? I doubt you've ever even seen a naked girl!"

Naruto raised his left eyebrow before absolutely surprising everyone, including Anko, by simply walking towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him, her breasts squeezing around his own chest, making her notice his height advantage. As she looked up at him, intent on giving him one warning before cutting off what he held dear the most, she was surprised when Naruto pressed his lips into hers in a ravenous kiss, basically ravaging her mouth, his tongue wrestling her own into submission before exploring the entirety of her mouth, even as his hands groped her delightful derriére.

Naruto pulled back from Anko's tonsil check with a smirk even as the Snake Mistress of Konoha fought hard to regain her breath and reign in her arousal. She was panting, her face and neck flushed and her chest heaving, doing marvelous things to her breasts. The purple haired woman came to as Naruto released his hold on her waist, her own right hand going towards his package and shamelessly groping him in front of the small audience that had built up. She had to swear inwardly at what she felt.

' _Dear Kami and the holy log! That was a fucking treetrunk!_ '

"Brat, if you survive the exams give me a shout. I will make you see god."

Naruto grinned at that even as he stepped back, enjoying the stupefied looks on the faces of most, and the hungry in the eyes of more than a few girls. The fact that they saw him basically make the proctor almost bowlegged with a 15 second kiss awakened their minds to the possibilities, as did the rough outline of something they probably saw under his shorts.

As the 15 minutes finished, Anko acted as if nothing had happened as she spoke.

"Welcome, Genin, to training ground 44, affectionately dubbed as the Forest of Death..."

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Well, I finally started Naruto's path to the ressurection of the Uzumaki clan. From now on, with his hormones kicking into high gear at 14 years of age, Naruto is going to be more proactive in the quest for sex and companionship. I may try my hand at a lemon or two, but I don't know if I'll be any good at it, so don't really get your hopes up.**

 **That said, as always, please leave a review, and if you enjoy the story, a follow and/or favorite. FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	18. Chapter 18: Body double, double trouble

_**Not mine, Not mine, Not mine, Not mine**_

 _ **-Previously on Uzumaki Chronicles-**_

 _"The first part of the exam wasn't about the knowledge we possessed. It was a test of information gathering, hence the Chunnin plants in the room that stayed until you announced the 10th question and then bowed out. The fact that being caught cheating was only a point deduction instead of instantly being desqualified made it a bit on the nose there, Ibiki. You were giving us 2 chances to fail in information gathering before the 3rd one alerted an enemy and got us killed._

 _If the first part of the exam wasn't centered around the information that we already had, why would the second one be? What could be worth enough to hinge a whole test, and possibly a carreer, on? The answer was pretty simple. Guts._

 _Were you willing to possibly sacrifice your and your team's carreers on one question you had no idea about whether you would get right or not? And, in practical terms, were you willing to do a mission with little to no information, possibly endangering your and your team's lives if you knew it was for the good of the village? If your answer was anything other than yes, then you don't get to become a chunnin until your find your resolve."_

 _Naruto pulled back from Anko's tonsil check with a smirk even as the Snake Mistress of Konoha fought hard to regain her breath and reign in her arousal. She was panting, her face and neck flushed and her chest heaving, doing marvelous things to her breasts. The purple haired woman came to as Naruto released his hold on her waist, her own right hand going towards his package and shamelessly groping him in front of the small audience that had built up. She had to swear inwardly at what she felt._

 _'Dear Kami and the holy log! That was a fucking treetrunk!'_

 _"Brat, if you survive the exams give me a shout. I will make you see god."_

 _As the 15 minutes finished, Anko acted as if nothing had happened as she spoke._

 _"Welcome, Genin, to training ground 44, affectionately dubbed as the Forest of Death..."_

 _ **-Now-**_

"Nai-chan!"

Anko bursting into the Jounin lounge while hunting for Kurenai was nothing new. People were used to watching Anko trying to rope Kurenai into going for a bite of Dango, or a roll in the hay with her, which is why most people didn't get bothered by it. It was always entertaining watching Kurenai shooting Anko down, and the mental images raised by the situation were simply amazing.

They were expecting another one of these situations today.

Kurenai, also used to the purplette's antics, spoke in a calm tone as she let her tea cool down.

"No, Anko, I won't sleep with you today either. And I already blew over a quarter of my salary paying for your dango this month."

Anko waved her hand dismissively at that.

"First of all, you will someday and I'm sure of it, second of all, that's not what I was here for but since you mention it I won't stop you from buying me food. No, Nai-chan, I'm here to tell you something important! Like, really big news!"

At that everyone focused on Anko, even as Kurenai answered.

"Oh? And what would these... big news... be?"

"I found him, Nai-chan! He has all of the required traits!"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow at that.

The 'required traits' mentioned was something that Anko had come up with a few yearss ago. Truth was, the main reason Anko was so physically affectionate with her and seemed to be constantly horny wasn't because she was a slut, it was actually the opposite. Ever since she first craved male companionship, she was disappointed. She showed a marked lack on inhibittions, and she was playful and more than just a bit intense, those were all traits of hers.

Normally when she found a guy she felt she could start a relationship with, or at least help scratch her itch, she found herself thoroughly disappointed. Either they were too prudish and got outraged with her presentation, too serious and wouldn't put up with her antics, too boring and couldn't keep up with her bantering and teasing ways, or simply an asshole and felt that her behaviour and clothing was an open invitation to try to use her like a bed warmer.

Suffice it to say, there was a reason why men tended to avoid Anko, and why 5 different men were singing soprano for the rest of their lives, their underpants sporting a noticeable lack of weight.

During a drunken night out Anko confided in her group of friends, Uzuki Yuugao, Inuzuka Hana, Yuuhi Kurenai and, accompanying them for that night simply for the sake of doing so, Inuzuka Tsume, about her relationship woes, and what she felt was the problem. The men in the village simply couldn't handle someone as woman as her! After all, if nothing was wrong with her, then the problem was everyone else!

Surprisingly, Tsume spoke up about having somewhat of the same problem. In her case, ever since her previous husband ran off in fear of her, the Inuzuka Matriarch found the lack of strong men in the village annoying as none could deal with her dominant nature, being intimidated into not even trying a thing, or trying to forcibly dominate her only to get their asses kicked and bite marks from her companion Kuromaru in places that would never heal.

Anko had, in all her drunken genius, compiled a set of prerequisites for any man that she'd allow into her bed. With the input of her somewhat less inebriated friends, they created the image of what would be the ideal man for the women in their small group of friends.

For Anko, the pickiest one in the group, surprisingly as you'd expect that from the colder women like Yuugao and Kurenai, to have so urgently come with news of someone that filled all the requisites for her was big news.

Their view of the perfect man was someone gorgeous, with handsome, striking features that made them stand out from the average men and women from the village, tall, well-built with at least a lean physique, though strongly defined muscles were even better as long as they were not disproportionately and freakishly so, have a nice sense of fashion, be intelligent but not flaunt said intelligence, have a great sense of humor but know when to play around and when to act seriously, and be capable, handy and resourceful. Having a man who knows how to fix problems and work with their hands was a turn on, and for Kunoichi like them with various enemies and high strength, having a weak partner was absolutely not an option, especially for Tsume, Anko, and Hana,surprisingly despite her calm demeanor so unlike an Inuzuka, who tended to like to play rough and could lose their mind a bit during some _important_ activities, in order to keep them in check.

Other than that, said male has to be good in bed and have an adequate member.

Shrugging off her reminiscing, Kurenai asked her friend before taking a sip of her tea.

"And who would this... Perfect man happen to be?"

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

Kurenai's spit take was mimicked by many others who could only relate the image of Uzumaki Naruto to the mischievous, underachievieng, debatably mentally challenged orange clad shrimp.

"But how? Why? Anko, this isn't funny!"

Anko shook her head emphatically at that.

"I'm not joking, Nai-chan! He can banter and joke around with me! He doesn't get embarrassed or intimidated, and he actually responded to my teasing with a pretty bold move!"

"What happened?"

"When I arrived in the room at the end of the first exam we started bantering, and he started flirting with me. Said he could curl my toes nine times in half an hour or something like that. I fired back by implying that he didn't even know what to do with his junk, in front of his team and friends! Most guys would feel embarassed, or angry at that, but the daring bastard made his way to me, wrapped his hands around my waist and kissed me something fierce!"

"He didn't!"

Anko nodded, even as her eyes gained a slightly glazed look.

"He did. Fucking amazing at it, too. 15 seconds of kissing and he almost had me ready to jump his bones right there and then, and he knew that! He just smirked at me and pulled back, left me hanging! I couldn't let that go without retaliation, so I groped him, tried to see if he blushed at least a bit. Well, the brave bastard didn't even flush or flinch a bit, he procceeded as if nothing had happened, and Nai-chan, he was fucking huge! I mean, the type of hung that will just ruin you forever while you enjoy it!"

Kurenai flushed at that, images of the new blonde she saw in the mission assignment office and the training fields occasionally flashing past her head, confirming the gorgeousness prerequisite.

"I was intrigued by the kid, obviously, so I went to Ibiki to know how he did on the first exam. Ibiki gave me the tape."

Kurenai scrambled towards Anko, pulling the tape from her hands and pushing it into the player in the lounge. Everyone watched the blonde ever since his team first entered the room, his flirting with some of the Kunoichi, the way he basically made the entire room shit themselves and his threat, all the way to his explanation about the purpose of the written portion of the chunnin exam, and ending at his first interaction with Anko and him shunshining his team out of the room.

Suffice to say, the ones not monitoring the situation around the blond were suitably stupified.

Kurenai started muttering under her breath.

"Gorgeous, check. Sense of style, check. Sense of humor, check. Intelligence, check. Dominance... A great big check..."

Before turning to Anko, a fire burning in her eyes as she spoke.

"We need to inform Hana, Yuugao and Tsume!"

Anko shook her head.

"Way ahead of you. I sent messenger hawks to each of them with a copy of the tape, and I already invited the kid for a spot of fun after he makes it past the second stage."

Kurenai sighed slightly at that, focusing back on her tea even as the rest of the room erupted in murmurs and rumours "Well Anko, it seems like you have a new fixation. No need to pester me to join your bed any longer."

"Who said anything about giving up? I was planning on having you and blondie in my bed at the same time. I'm sure as hell he won't say no."

Kurenai, and everybody else with a full mouth had to spit take again at that.

In the back of the room sat Kakashi, Asuma, Gai and Genma. They all shared a common thought.

' _Lucky Bastard!_ '

 _ **-Forest of death-**_

In the forest of death, we find Team 7 leisurely tree jumping their way towards the tower in the center.

The chunnin hopefuls had been given one scroll of a pair, earth and heaven, and were tasked with retrieving the one opposite to theirs in a 5 day time period while fending off other teams hunting for scrolls of their own and surviving the dangerous forest environment.

Naruto had somewhat cheated, swiping the heaven scroll that Anko held on her person during his groping of her and sealing it into his wrist, though when she eyed him suspiciously he simply smirked at her, admitting to nothing. They had been officially given an earth scroll, and intended to heading straight to the tower and not having to deal with any kind of unnecessary problem which could delay their advancement. They tensed mid-jump as they felt a dangerous chakra spike close to them, before a wall of wind slamed into them in order to try and separate them...

Only for the three members of team 7 to turn into a cloud of smoke.

Orochimaru , who had created the wall of wind, could only eye the scene bemusedly. He didn't, however, expect the rain of fire that erupted from below him, forcing him to hastily replace himself, though his disguise as a waterfal kunoichi did not survive.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura watched the blazing firestorm from their position hidden in the underbush, waiting to see whether their attacker survived or not, when Naruto's eyes widened and he pushed Sasuke and Sakura away to different sides before jumping, a large, 10 meter wide and over 15 meter long brown snake erupting from the ground below him, it's jaws intent on opening wide and swallow him. He managed to take hold of each of it's jaws, forcing them close with sheer brute strength before encasing one of his legs in wind chakra and delivering a kick to the snake's midsection, cutting it in half before it vanished in a cloud of smoke.

When he managed to re-focus, he saw a pale, Black-haired, serpentine individual rushing towards Sasuke, gleaming teeth drippin a purple liquid. Naruto turned into a blur, and just before Orochimaru could literally sink his fangs into the visibly shaken Sasuke, Naruto's boot connected with the snake's face, throwing him hard against a tree.

Turning away from Orochimaru for an instant, Naruto barked out.

"Sasuke, take Sakura and the scrolls and go! This guy is way out of your league, I'll hold him back and then meet up with you at the tower! Move!"

Sasuke shook off his killer intent induced daze, nodding almost absentmindedly before he picked up and unconscious Sakura and the scrolls she held (after all, would the enemies expect them to leave the important cargo with the least combat-oriented member?) and dashed straight for the tower, his legs putting his chunnin-level speed on display.

Orochimaru tried to slip past Naruto and chase after Sasuke, but he had to twist and cross his arms together at the last second, blocking a hard kick from the blonde that sent him spinning up to the treetops.

Naruto appeared on a branch opposite to Orochimaru's in a Shunshin even as the snake man shook off his light daze, a scowl manifesting on his serpentine face.

"You're starting to really piss me off, brat. Two times now you've messed with my plans!"

Naruto lifted an eyebrow in surprise. He was expecting a straight up fight, probably the most difficult and perilous in his entire life, but his enemy instead settle for giving him information for free? Hey, who was he to deny some free info?

"First, you manage to make Sasuke-kun's entrance on the chunnin exams get delayed by your irritating cautiousness! Why would you delay your own chance of advancement? Who would do that when they can fight on pair with Jounin? I could have grabbed him easily in Kumo, and maybe even start something with them after the Hyuuga incident! Now two times now you denied me from marking him! You are going to die slowly and painfully for this, brat!"

Naruto blinked owlishly at that.

"Oh wow. I've been thwarting the plans of an S-rank criminal without even trying. I'm even more badass than I thought I was."

Orochimaru was silently fuming by now, thinking about how a jinchuuriki's regeneration could help in the most intrusive, painful experiments possible when he felt the blond brat flare his chakra a few times.

"I just sent a village-wide code black signal. In less than 15 minutes all of the available ANBU and the Hokage will be swarming this forest. Do you think you have enough time to beat me, get to Sasuke, and then manage to escape from the 3rd and his elite agents?"

Orochimaru snarled at Naruto in anger, knowing that the brat was right. If he intended to leave unscathed he'd have to even give up on killing or taking the brat. A Jounin-level fight would rob him of precious time. But, he'd keep the brat away from his source of power. After all, the only way an academy dead last could do as much as the 14 year old brat in front of him did was through the power of a bijuu, was it not?

His mind made, Orochimaru dashed towards Naruto at full speed, his hand cocked back with purple flames on his fingertips. He slammed his hand into the blonde's gut with a cry of " **Gogyo Fuuin!** " before he sense a few chakra signatures heading towards them. Contemptuously eyeing the unconscious blonde one last time, Orochimaru simply sunk into the treebranch he stood on before his presence disappeared completely.

The Hokage and his ANBU arrived in the forest to find Uzumaki Naruto sitting down on a treebranch, calm and alone. Before he could announce his presence, Naruto started speaking.

"Orochimaru of the Sannin was here less than 7 minutes ago. He intended to brand Uchiha Sasuke, but I managed to thwart that plan and send the remainder of my team away while I faced him. He already planned on kidnapping Sasuke, intending to have done it in Kumo during the previous exams, so we know that he's fixated on him, probably for his Sharingan."

As soon as Naruto finished speaking he choked lightly before throwing up some measure of blood. Hiruzen spoke in worry.

"Are you alright, Naruto? Do you have any injuries from your fight?"

Naruto shook his head at that, wiping his lips clean with his sleeve.

"No, I'm fine. I lost focus for an instant and he hit me with a ' **Gogyo Fuuin** ' (Five-elements seal). The seal is messing a bit with my stability."

Hiruzen's eyes widened at that.

"Stability? Then you're not..."

"The original Naruto, yes. I'm a blood clone. The boss is training right now. He didn't expect anyone of that caliber other than him to be in the exams, so he sent me in his place. He'll probably have to replace me soon, but that's a minor issue. As soon as I group up with team 7 I'll dispell a clone and let him know to meet up with you."

Hiruzen nodded at that, signaling his ANBU to organize a thorough search of the forest while not intervening with the exams, and then one of the village in general.

As Hiruzen himself left the forest, the Naruto clone moved away, his objective opposite of the central tower.

 _ **-Elsewhere in the forest-**_

"Orochimaru-Sama is taking a long while to meet up with us, don't you think?"

"Orochimaru-Sama acts on Orochimaru-sama's own schedule. We were told to wait for him here, we wait for him here. Or do you want me to tell him you questioned his orders?"

Akado Yoroi gulped and shook his head as Yakushi Kabuto pushed up his glasses, the glare hiding his eyes. He then kept speaking.

"Still, he _is_ taking a while. One would think that he already marked the Uchiha and eliminated to Kyuubi Jinchuuriki by now."

 ***SQUELCH!***

 ***SQUELCH!***

The wet sound of a blade severing flesh filled Kabuto's experienced ears even as he jumped away from his previous spot, his teammates now devoid of heads. He looked around, finding no one, catching no movement, nothing.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Did you really think that would work, Yakushi?"

Kabuto Whirled around with a swipe of his arm, his chakra scalpel buzzing into life and cutting through the empty air where he had heard the voice coming from.

"For one of Orochimaru's spies you were pretty damn stupid. Or overconfident, which would amount to the same thing in this line of work."

Kabuto went into a roll, throwing a handful of Kunai and Shuriken at what he percieved to be the source of the noise, hearing his tools sinking into one of the thick trees around him with a loud Thunk.

"I mean, seriously. You said to have collected your information during your failed exams, yet you had comprehensive information on first-timers to the exam, even foreign first-timers. How the fuck did you expect to mantain your cover as a weak, pitiful little gennin? Moron."

Kabuto was by now both frustrated and wary. Someone in the room had read him so thoroughly even when he thought he'd been playing his role perfectly. He had been undercover and undetected in leaf for years straight, and he suddenly got discovered? Things were pretty dicey for him.

Suddenly all those thoughts went out of his head, being replaced by excruciating pain.

He fell forward onto the floor, having lost his footing... Literally.

His right leg had been cut off right above knee level, his severed foot in his line of sight. He rushed through handsigns before placing his hands on his thigh, trying to delay nerve death in order to possibly reatach his leg, before a second flare of pain signified the loss of his right arm.

Tears of agony fell down his face even as he turned to face the source of the deliberatly loud footsteps, his gaze focused hatefully on the blonde visage of Uzumaki Naruto, a bloody sword in his hand.

Naruto walked towards him slowly and deliberately, keeping out of range of his remaining arm and the chakra scalpel in it as he moved to his lower body, stepping hard on his stump and disrupting his focus on the technique, all the while ripping another agonized scream from his throat.

Walking over to his remaining leg, Naruto stomped on his kneecap, disabling it as well and causing Kabuto renewed agony, before repeating with his remaining arm at elbow level. As Kabuto started losing consciousness he felt himself forcibly woken up by the excruciating feeling of fire licking at his stump leg and arm.

"Aww, Yakushi-san. Your chakra scalpels showed that you were a med-nin, so you know what I'm doing right now. I'm cauterizing your wounds, ensuring you don't bleed out. I'm trying to help you!"

As Kabuto once again turned his hateful, cloudy gaze upon Naruto, he was surprised by the boot heading towards his face, before he blacked out.

Blood clone Naruto made a shadow clone that took hold of Kabuto before disappearing in a puff of smoke, having been reverse-summoned to a different area. That business dealt with, he shunshined away, unnoticed by the sweeping ANBU.

 _ **-Unknown location, Fire Country-**_

"..."

A silent figure shifted slightly from his previous position above his desk, the vast amount of sealing arrays and diagrams on the pieces of paper covering every singly inch of it shifting ever so slightly with him. He took a second to process the information he had just received, before looking towards the teenaged girl standing behind him.

"Ibuki, we have just gotten a new arrival at the dungeons. Set him up, make sure he has no trackers, hidden seals or any ways to kill himself, restrain his chakra and gag him. Have Jean go through his head and make transcripts of everything she finds in his mind."

As it spoke, the figure slowly stood up from it's seat, reaching for his sword.

The previously adressed Ibuki spoke.

"Are you going out, Naruto-Sama?"

Naruto, the real one, no eyepatch nor scar over his left eye, was wearing a white, long-sleeved button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black slacks and hard-soled formal shoes, a dark blue, button up vest over his shirt, and his hair similar to his blood clone's, free and falling to his shoulders on the sides, and in a waist-length spiky ponytail on the back.

His body was bulkier than his blood clone, as though more resilient, blood clones still could not gain physical improvements. The only reason his clone had seemed to have been physically improving was because he'd periodically send a new one to replace the older one, making sure they'd never run out of chakra and turn into a pool of blood at the most inconvenient of times.

The blonde stood up, his face in a thoughtful frown as he answered absentmindedly.

"Yes, I am. I'll be paying a visit to Konoha for a while. Tell Mashiro to have her lab and projects S-01 and S-02 ready to be moved. Project TC is progressing greatly and it should be done in a week or two, if I keep going at this pace."

"Hai, Naruto-Sama!"

Flashing Ibuki a smile, Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke, being reverse-summoned.

As soon as Naruto vanished Ibuki allowed the dreamy sigh caused by the smile to flow out, before refocusing on her boss' orders. She walked out of his study heading towards the dungeons, preparing everything.

 _ **-Forest of Death-**_

"Welcome, boss. You really smartenned up today, like you expected your presence to be needed."

The original Naruto had to sigh at that.

"Bloody hell, why do my clones always have to be such smartasses?"

"Because you yourself are also a smartass?" The clone replied with a grin, which Naruto couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Point taken. You can dispell now, I'll take care of the rest."

The clone turned into a puddle of blood on the forest ground, which Naruto made sure to keep away from his shoes as he dashed towards where he felt Sasuke and Sakura's chakra signatures.

In 5 minutes he reached the outskirts of the central tower, finding his team waiting for him.

' _So they really waited for me to come. We've come a long way as a team._ '

Shrugging off his thoughts, Naruto called out to them.

"Sasuke, Sakura, I'm here. Let's go inside."

Sakura and Sasuke looked at eachother, before turning towards Naruto. Sakura was the one to speak up.

"You're not Naruto! You should do a better job at trying to impersonate someone, our teammate was dressed differently, and he has a missing eye!"

Naruto nodded appreciatively at that.

"Though I'm glad that you didn't just blindly accepted me as the real Naruto and foolishly turned your backs on me, I'd rather avoid the whole mistaken identity drama. Ask me something only the real Naruto would know."

Sasuke spoke up at that.

"What was the callsign we agreed upon when we first entered the forest?"

"Trick question, we expected to finish the exam in one go so we didn't expect to need a callsign. That was a bad choice, in hindsight, as this kind of situation really hammers the point of having alternative plans home."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed lightly even as Sakura relaxed.

"Still not convinced. Prove that you're the real Naruto or I'll attack."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"You do know that I can kick your ass still, right?"

Sakura and Sasuke crouched at that while Naruto thought to himself.

' _Not making things any easier, Uzumaki..._ '

"Okay, something only I would know. During our gennin exam, after Kakashi buried you up to the neck, I asked you how it felt to be his bitch before using you and Sakura to pass the test."

Sasuke blushed embarassedly at the reminder of a different, more immature self even as he and Sakura relaxed. The three proceeded to make their way to the tower, where they found a scroll on the wall saying some bullshit about heaven and earth.

Deciphering the hint, Sakura suggested opening the scrolls, after which the smiling figure of Umino Iruka congratulated them on passing .

"Congratulations on procceeding through the second stage of the exam! You've taken 6 hours, being the first to reach the tower and breaking every previous record. You can go on up and choose any of the rooms to stay in."

As he finished adressing the team in general, he turned to Naruto.

"Naruto, Hokage-Sama has told every one of us in the welcoming comitee of the tower to warn you that he requires your presence as soon as possible."

Naruto nodded at that before team 7 climbed the stairs up into the living area. Sakura, curious about what happened, asked Naruto.

"Naruto, if it isn't too... nosy... would you mind if I asked why the Hokage wants to meet you?"

Naruto shrugged mentally, seeing no harm in telling his team a bit more about himself. Even after 6 months of his blood clone spending time with them as a team he rarely told him something about him, making most of their team meetings silent from his part.

"It's probably about what happened back in the forest. That creepy pale guy is a very dangerous individual, and since I was the one to face him the Hokage probably wants to debrief me, analyze any possible behaviour patterns or motives for him to be here, and to have attacked our team."

Team 7 settled in a room, all of the rooms being arranged for communal living between the teams with a single bedroom with three single beds. There were fresh clothes in various different sizes, both male and female in all rooms, and the showers and cafeteria were communal, to try and stimulate comraderie and friendship between all the examinees. As soon as they each chose a bed Naruto made his way out and to one of the Chunin. After a brief talk they vanished in a Shunshin, appearing in the Hokage's office.

The office was occupied by 5 people, the Hokage, Anko, Kakashi, Ibiki and Commander Dragon.

They all had grave looks on their faces, each of them being in the room for a different reason.

The Hokage had to worry both about the fact that Orochimaru had been in the Village, and that Naruto hadn't in a very long while.

Anko was present because it was a matter relating to the person she hated the most, her previous sensei who betrayed her, Orochimaru.

Kakashi was in the room because it was his team that had been targeted and he was worried about them, especially his blond-haired student that had faced the S-ranked menace directly in combat.

Ibiki had been asked to be in the room by the Hokage in order to analyze Uzumaki during his debriefing and making sure that he was being completely truthful.

Dragon was in the room because the matter was a code black emergency situation hinting at a compromised integrity of the village's security, and, unknown to all but the Hokage and the blonde himself, because Naruto was one of his agents.

The hokage spoke up in a grave tone.

"Gennin Uzumaki, Report!"

Naruto, standing at attention in his new outfit which had been disregarded by all others in the room in the face of the more important situation, spoke up.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Me and the remainder of team 7 managed to secure ourselves a victory very early in the competition, and we intended to head directly to the tower in order to avoid having to involve ourselves in skirmishes over scrolls, or risking attack by opposing teams. It was as we made our way towards the tower that we made contact with the enemy.

We had decided on having a trio of Kage Bunshin posing as us to draw enemy focus while we kept out of sight. They bunshin were attacked with a wind jutsu before the original team 7 was attacked by a summoned snake. I managed to push my teammates away from danger before dispelling the summon, only to see Orochimaru dashing for Sasuke.

I managed to intercept him and allow my teammates to move ahead while I kept him busy. He made a second try on Sasuke, but I thwarted him again. We moved the fight to the upper tree level, and instead of engaging me directly as I expected, Orochimaru monologued. It seems I've already ruined his plans once before, though inadvertently, when my actions delayed team 7's expected participation in the Kumo chunnin exams.

He confessed to have intended to mark Sasuke and made it clear that he was his target. Having all the information I believed he'd part with, I sent a distress call for the ANBU corps. You know what happened after that."

Hiruzen looked towards Ibiki who nodded, proving the blonde had been completely truthful in his words.

"I see. Are you sure you know nothing more? Do you have any theories, conjectures, anything that might point at any further goals?"

"Well, first thing to come to mind is the fact that he intended to cut me off from my tenant, probably believing it to be the source of my strength. He intended to make sure I was weak and helpless, or at least less strong than he believed me to be when we faced off. He probably sees me as an unpredictable factor that could upset the flow of his possible plans.

Other than that is my belief that when he spoke about marking Sasuke, he meant applying a cursed seal."

Hiruzen steepled his fingers, his hands covering his mouth as he spoke.

"And how would you happen to know about the cursed seal? It is not a widely known about thing, very high-level restricted information."

Naruto eyed the Hokage incredulously at that.

"Really? Did you forget the type of clearance my off-time activities granted me? You didn't think I'd make full use of the privileges?"

Hiruzen blushed lightly at that, having forgotten something so essential in a moment of high tension. Kakashi was the one to speak up next.

"Naruto... What happened to your left eye? How do you have it back? And where did the scar go?"

"I am afraid, Kakashi" Hiruzen started "That what you believed to have been Naruto has been only a clone, since your mission in Wave as far as I can guess."

Everyone turned to the blonde at that, who simply shrugged.

"A bit before that, ever since my second year in the academy. Why would I spend my time in a classroom, being scorned and sabotaged by those supposed to have taught me, when I could be training to make myself stronger, with a clone in place for me? I've been using clones to fill in for me whenever I think I can get away with it. I only ask myself why you don't do the same with your paperwork."

Shrugging at that even as the old man's jaw reached the floor, he continued talking.

"Eventually I progressed from shadow clones to blood clones, and my blood clones were good enough for field work. If the situation was too much for them, they would have reverse-summoned the real me to them and I'd have dealt with the situation. I've spent these six whole months lying low and out of sight, letting my clone fill in for me and making a new one whenever their chakra was running low, while I explored the full depth of my heritage."

Naruto started absentmindedly talking to himself at that.

"Speaking of, that spiral conversion seal really reminded me of what little diagrams the ANBU library had on the cursed seal..."

"What was it you said about the cursed seal!?"

Naruto looked at the uncharacteristically shaken Anko before speaking.

"I said that it reminded me of a seal, well, a sealing array more specifically, that I worked on unraveling. Was a tough bitch to crack, too. They seem to have a common basis somewhere in the matrix, but in order for me to know more I'd have to actually see one."

"A-and... If you saw one, could you, like, get rid of it?"

Naruto shrugged at that.

"Maybe, depends on the complexity of the seal and it's elements. I'd have to see and analyze it while idle, as well as in action, and depending on the results I could find a way to either block it completely, or even destroy it."

Anko bodily threw herself at Naruto, trying to squeeze the life out of him as she spoke.

"Please, try to get this thing off of me. If you do it I'll be in your debt for the rest of my life, and any favour you need from me, I'll do it."

Naruto dislodged Anko, looking at the Hokage before speaking.

"Favours aside, would you have any problem with me doing this?"

Hiruzen shook his head at that.

"None at all, Naruto. In fact, if you managed to crack open this seal that our best seal masters haven't managed to even fully understand, I'd be paying you for an S-rank."

Naruto nodded at that.

"I'll need all of the information you currently have on the seal, a chakra residue-clear ritual room and copious amounts of sealing supplies."

Hiruzen nodded at that, writing down everything on a list.

"You will be given all of these after the end of the second phase. Until then, you're free to return to your team. Anko, you're also dismissed. Get yourself some rest and spend time with your friends."

The two nodded before disappearing in almost simultaneous Shunshin. As soon as they did, the Third turned towards Ibiki, who started speaking without prompting.

"Everything he said was true. Though how true, I do not know. He could be omitting some information, but nothing untrue enough to cause his body language to drop hints."

Dragon spoke up after that.

"That kid is even better than I expected. To be able to bamboozle all of us so thoroughly with clones... He's even more worthy of the Wolf mask than I expected."

"And do you not think him to be a security risk, with all of his covert movements and such, based on his psychological record?"

Ibiki and Dragon simultaneously shook their heads, while Ibiki took the lead in speaking.

"Neither his behaviour, nor that of the clone taking his place, spoke of betrayal. He's had various opportunities to hurt us, starting from the scroll incident all the way to his face off with Orochimaru. If he intended to betray us, he would have done something earlier."

Dragon nodded in agreement, before speaking himself.

"Plus, he's been actively making our ANBU corps stronger and more capable. If he had wanted to act against us, he would've probably used every possible occasion, including his S-ranks, to sabotage us. He seems to be genuinely giving it his all in his shinobi duty."

Hiruzen nodded at that before dismissing Dragon and Ibiki as well, leaving only Kakashi who took the opportunity to speak for the first time.

"When Naruto spoke about his heritage, did he mean...?"

"Yes, Kakashi. He knew all along, and was very cross with me for not telling him. He felt betrayed, and the trust he held in me has been thoroughly shattered, though I believe he does not hold the same animosity towards you. After all, I made it an S-rank secret, albeit an... informal... one. He does not blame you for not telling him."

Kakashi sighed out in relief.

"Oh thank Kami. I'll... I'll see if I talk to him about the past, tell him a few stories about his parents..."

Hiruzen nodded approvingly, dismissing Kakashi as well.

After a few instants, the form of Jiraiya manifested from the wall.

"The kid is pretty good. Anbu at 14? A genius, like his father."

"He made ANBU at 13 actually, and he's earned the Wolf mask."

Jiraiya whistled loudly at that.

"Pretty damn impressive. And the way he got absorbed into his seal speech... That has Kushina all over it. Seems as if he got all the best traits from each of his parents."

"One of the traits he's got from Kushina as well is the ability to hold a grudge. I've been here for him for his whole life, and the reveal of my witholding information from him shattered his trust in me. You revealing to be his godfather may lead to the shattering of something different, and extremely painful to you."

"He's a smart kid, he'll understand that I had no way of taking care of him. It wasn't my fault."

Hiruzen scowled at that.

"And whose was it? Mine? His? Minato's? No, Jiraiya, it was entirely your fault."

"Sensei, you know about how important my work with the spy network is!"

"Important enough for you to take the time to peep on women, blow your money on brothels and write your books! Admit it, Jiraiya, you fucked up bad, as did I, and the village in general."

Hiruzen turned in his chair, changing his view to the village in the setting sun.

"We fucked up with him, and betrayed Minato and Kushina's wishes. You see your absence as the result of you keeping up your responsibility towards the village. He will see it as another person who was supposed to be there to protect him failing in their duties. I just hope you don't do anything to aggravate him when you do meet him. I'd hate to have to bury you in a matchbox."

"He may be good, but he's not that good... is he?"

"I don't know, Jiraiya. Everything that we've seen so far were the skills of a clone. We don't know the full extent of his natural power, and we don't know how much stronger he'd become if he tapped into his tenant's power. A young man he might be, but helpless he is not, nor is he very forgiving. Keep that in mind."

Recognizing a dismissal when he saw one, Jiraiya left the Hokage's office as stealthily as he entered.

Unknown to both, a fly that had been stationed on one of the leaves of the potted plant disappeared in a tiny puff of smoke.

In an empty section of the exam Tower, Naruto stopped mid-step before a sneer covered his face.

"My godfather, was he? We'll see."

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Another chapter done! Shit's getting real hot now, guys, in all senses of the word! Now, with Orochimaru believing that the Jinchuuriki of Konoha is powerless, how will he change his plans?**

 **Stick around and find out!**

 **As always, please leave a review, and if you enjoy the story, a Follow/Favorite as it helps the story reach more readers. Ja ne!**


	19. Chapter 19: Prelims and Harems

**Not mine.**

 _ **-Exam Tower, end of first day-**_

Naruto sat leisurely in one of the couches in the common area, watching from the corner of his eyes as the sand team made their way up. Naruto's gaze met Temari who blushed lightly at remembering his display with the crazy proctor, before smirking challengingly at him.

Naruto responded with a smirk of his own, one promising very pleasurable things to come. Suddenly Temari stiffened as bloodlust started emmanating from Gaara in scary amounts, Kankuro also freezing. Sasuke, who had been sharpening his Kunai, and Sakura, who had been reading a book on medical practices in times of war, tensed in preparation for a fight between both teams. Before tensions could boil over, however, two more teams joined team 7 and the sand team in the lounge.

One of them was team Anko. Fuu had been talking to Haku as they climbed the stairs, but they both froze when they noticed the tense atmosphere, preparing to back up Naruto's team.

The other one was team B. Yugito had been having another internal conversation with Matatabi about the hot blonde from the first test, while Atsui and C argued about one of them having stolen a sandwich the other had called dibs in, when the walked into the lounge and froze.

It was a 4-way mexican standoff, all the sides eyeing eachother nervously. Suddenly Naruto stood up, walking to the middle of the space between the four teams and pointing at Gaara.

"One."

Then, he turned to Yugito.

"Two."

He then pointed at Fuu.

"Seven."

Before dropping into a waist-low bow, his right arm folded in front of his waist and the other one out and upwards in a dramatic fashion.

"And I, am mister Nine."

Gaara's team, Fuu, Yugito and her team flinched at that. Not only did the blonde know about the different Jinchuuriki, there was also the fact that there were four Jinchuuriki in the competition, and two of them were friends from the same Village.

Naruto kept speaking.

"No need to be so hostile, after all, should siblings in burden not understand eachother better than all others?"

Gaara's face seemed to turn pensive, before he let out a pained grimace and clutched his head. Temari and Kankuro gained terrified looks at that, even as Naruto frowned thoughtfully.

Soon Gaara settled down, turning around and making his way back to his team's room. He spoke even as he left.

"Mother shall claim your blood."

Everyone else watched, team 7 awkwardly, the other teams cautiously as Naruto made his way towards the sand team.

Kankuro's knees started trembling even as he tried to reach for the bundle wrapped around his back, while Temari gulped nervously even as she felt herself heating up. The hot, bad boy was even _badder_ than she thought. Despite the fact that he carried the same burden as her brother, he was still different than him. He was still bad, but it was a different kind of bad than Gaara. What scared her the most was the fact that the worse he seemed to be to her, the more he seemed appealing.

He stepped into her personal space, forcing her to look up at him only for her gaze to meet his sapphire blues, almost making her swoon when they curved as he smiled genuinely at her, his hand caressing her cheek with feather light touches.

"No need to be afraid, Temari. Just because you learned something new about me, doesn't change who I am, in the end. I'm still the blond who called you a lovely desert flower. The one who thinks your smile is adorable."

He leaned in at this, whispering in her ear in a husky tone.

" _ **The one who almost stopped your brother's heart with fear.**_ "

Temari couldn't help the chill that ran up her spine at that, even as the blonde leaned back and flashed her another smile, before turning towards Yugito.

"Miss two. I've heard various stories about your companion... I do hope at least _some_ of them are more than mere... speculation."

Yugito blushed lightly, even as Matatabi screamed from inside her cage.

" _ **CLAIM HIM, KIT! CLAIM HIM RIGHT NOW! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO, YOU KNOW I WANT TO AS WELL, LET'S DO IT! SCREW EVERYONE ELSE, RIP OFF HIS CLOTHES RIGHT NOW AND SIT ON HIS-...**_ "

" _MATATABI! STOP IT!_ "

Licking her suddenly dry lips, Yugito spoke up.

"I'm sure I've no idea what you're talking about, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto grinned at her, a sinful, indulgent grin that promised much, and spoke of things known that should not be, even as he spoke.

"No need to be so formal, you can just call me Naruto. Nothing wrong about befriending the competition, yes? And I do intend to become well acquainted with you, _Yugi-chan~_ "

Yugito's blush turned atomic in hue before she let out an indistinct squeak and basically ran past her teammates down the stairs. Her teammates shared confused looks before following after her.

Naruto then turned towards team Anko, giving them his warm, heartmelting smile.

"Haku-chan. Fuu-chan. You don't know how glad I am to see the two of you. I was starting to miss you greatly, you know."

Haku was the one to speak up, her time living with Naruto making her somewhat resistant to his teasing, while Fuu froze with a large blush in place, even as a somewhat dopey smile appeared on her face.

"You met us just less than 24 hours ago, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto walked towards the two girls, taking one hand of each of the girls before saying.

"One minute away from either of you is too much time."

This time Haku didn't manage to respond, a blush springing up on her face. She still managed to lead the absentminded Fuu back towards their shared room.

Turning back towards his team, Naruto's face turned serious as he anticipated any enquiries.

"I know you have questions, and I can't promise to answer them all, but I will answer some when I can. Now is not the time."

His teammates nodded in agreement. Naruto didn't actually have to tell them anything, the fact that he volunteered to tell them _something_ was a marked improvement over the previous dinamic of their team. The settled with whatever the blonde was willing to tell them, not pressing him for more.

With that, team 7 proceeded to their own rooms for a night of sleep.

 _ **-3rd day-**_

A few more teams had arrived to the tower, including team Darui from Kumo, the Kiri team intent on meeting up with Naruto and the remainder of the rookie 9, namely teams 8 and 10, and team Gai.

The rookie 9 and Haku and Fuu were mingling, generally talking about what they saw and experienced and taking the edge off until the end of the 5 day testing period.

As Ino was about to ask Naruto a question, someone tapped his shoulder, halting all conversations immediately. Naruto turned his head to see who it was tapping his shoulder, only to witness a boy with short cropped brown hair, a blue, short sleeved cardigan over a similarly coloured long-sleeved shirt, a pair of arctic camo ANBU-style cargo pants, and sandals. Naruto raise an eyebrow questioningly, prompting the boy wearing a Kiri headband to speak up.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto, right?"

At Naruto's nod, he spoke up.

"I was told to give you a message in private. Said to tell you it comes from sharptooth and Herringbone."

Naruto's eyes widened at that before he stood up. As his teammates moved to stand with him he gave them a headshake, calling out.

"Haku, be a dear and come with me, okay? The remainder of you, get back to relaxing as you were. We'll be done quickly here."

They moved away, picking up the remainder of the Kiri team before finding a secluded spot to talk at. Signaling the Kiri team to hold their tongues for a while, Naruto placed a tag on the floor before running through a slew of handsigns, a hazy bubble of chakra emerging around them.

"Surfer dude. Now that you've got my callsign, what message did Zabuza and Mei-chan send?"

Even as one of them grumbled about how lucky Naruto was for being close to a _Mei-sama_ , the leader spoke up.

"Zabuza-sama wanted to tell you that he appreciates your wrapped gift of a three meal shrimp course, whatever that might mean, and Mei-sama asked us to tell you to get ready to graciously host her as the Mizukage would make their presence known during the third stage of the exams."

Whistling at that, Naruto spoke.

"Message delivered, now, anything personal?"

The leader of the Kiri squad shrugged again at that.

"He asked to tell you to protect his Frozen flower, and that he'd kick your ass in 1 month if you tried to get fresh with her. Whatever that may mean. Man, being a messenger is fucking confusing. Cryptic messages, codes and shit. Well, whatever, we've done what we were ordered to."

With that the Kiri group left the privacy bubble, leaving only Haku and Naruto inside.

"They're coming in one month... Oh god this is going to be so troublesome... On the good side, you'll get to see your dad again, Haku."

Haku brightened up tremendously at that, flashing Naruto a brilliant smile even as the sound bubble was taken down and they returned to their group of friends.

 _ **-After the 5th day-**_

"Man, the turnout was massive."

Kiba's statement was in response to the large number of people assembled in the arena. The end of the 5th day signaled the end of the second stage, and the end of many teams' ambition of making Chunnin in these exams.

The remaining contestants had been given a 2 hour warning to gear up before assembling at the mess hall, or cafeteria, before being directed to the arena they were now on. There was a large digital screen on a wall, and two hands clasped into a ram sign on a different one, which was opposite to the observation bay the Hokage, the jounin sensei of each of the present teams and a few of the proctors stood on.

The Hokage spoke up at that.

"You all have been reunited here because of an abnormality. This year, the number of teams to have successfully passed through the first two stages was unexpectedly large. This won't do, unfortunately. The final round is going to be fought in the presence of foreign dignitaries, daimiyo and various business people, which means that we have to reduce the number of fights to take place. After all, we need to keep the people interested and entertained, and having a tournament drawn out in such a way would be counterproductive.

The chunnin exams, unlike what you think, aren't simply a group of tests put together haphazardly just because. No. They are a replacement for war.

During times of war, the different nations fought amongst eachother in order to secure contracts for themselves, keeping the money flowing for them, and food and clothes on their shinobi. We have come far since those times, but we had to find another way to entice potential clients. All of you, right now, are figting for yourselves, your nations, and to mantain the peace between our different nations."

Everyone's faces hardened at that declaration, their back straightening ever so slightly. Before the Hokage could say any more, a pale, frail-looking man spoke up. He was Gekko Hayate, childhood friend of Uzuki Yuugao, former disciple of Uzumaki Kushina alongside said girl and one half of Konoha's mooncutter duo.

"Please *cough* Let me explain the rest, Hokage-*cough* sama.

We will be holding preliminary rounds. Contestants will be randomly chosen to participate in various battles with different conditions, from a straightforward 1v1 to a 3-person free for all, the possibilities are various. The ones to win their respective fights shall make it to the final round.

The contestants and conditions chosen shall be displayed on that electronic board right there."

As he finished speaking, the electronic board came to life, names cycling at extremely high speeds until only two remained.

"Uchiha Sasuke *cough* and Kinuta Dosu, stay *cough* in the arena. Everyone else, please move on to the *cough* observation bay."

The rest of the people moved up the elevated platform, leaving Sasuke to face off with the bandaged, metal-armed shinobi from the mysterious Sound Village.

"Begin!"

As soon as Hayate gave the call, Dosu dashed towards Sasuke who jumped backwards, keeping his distance from Dosu as he still remembered what happened to that Kabuto guy despite the fact that he had dodged his attack. Sasuke's speed was superior to Dosu's, so he managed to always stay out of Hand-to-hand range as he tried analyzing his oponent's movement patterns.

He managed to notice, despite his opponents hunch, that he favored his left foot, the one opposite to his metallic gauntlet, stomping harder with it probably in order to offset the weight of his weapon and mantain his balance.

Analysis made, Sasuke dashed backwards, and just as Dosu advanced towards him, he tossed a few shuriken at the ground right in front of his right foot, which Dosu was unable to react in time to and managed to step pretty hard on, injuring himself and crippling his movement.

Cursing loudly, the Sound Genin went down to his knee as he tried to keep the weight of his foot, his hateful gaze not leaving Sasuke. Said individual decided to end the battle quickly, so he sent a shower of Kunai and Shuriken at his seemingly defenseless oponent, only for them to veer wildly off course as soon as they got within a certain range of him. Again and again Sasuke kept throwing sharp weapons, only for them to change course at the last second.

Irritated at that, Sasuke activated his sharingan before trying again, his fully evolved eyes allowing him to notice the minute movement of Dosu's metallic gauntlet before a cloud of chakra emerged from it, forcefully displacing air.

' _Wait a minute. Cracked glasses, sickness and puking, displaced air... Got him!_ '

Sasuke made a few handsings, making a rudimentary wall of earth block Dosu from moving backwards, before throwing another set of Shuriken.

As the shuriken sliced the air on course towards his enemy, Sasuke went through a slew of handsigns, ending on tiger and breathing in deeply.

' _Come on..._ '

As soon as Dosu started the movement of his gauntlet to deflect, Sasuke thought.

' _Yes!_ _ **Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire style: Fireball Jutsu)**_ '

The fireball flew towards Dosu, seemingly slamming into a barrier at the same area as the projectiles got deflected, but instead of changing courses, the flames seemed to rush at Dosu as they burned even brighter and stronger.

Hayato let loose with a water jutsu against the blazing fire, revealing the charred corpse of the sound nin.

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke."

As Sasuke made his way up the stairs to the observation bay, Kiba spoke up.

"What the hell happened back there? Fire Jutsu aren't supposed to behave that way!"

Naruto was the one to answer.

"Sound. You know chakra theory, right? Elemental circle, fire beats wind. Well, sound is simply a set of vibrations propagating through a medium. That guy's gauntlet allowed him to use sound based jutsu by manipulating the vibrations in the air, which is why that Kabuto guy had his glasses crack and his inner ear burst back in the classroom.

His gauntlet was forcing his chakra into the air particles, forcing them to vibrate in specific manners and speeds in order to actually deflect physical projectiles, but in the end his sound jutsu was just a crude for of wind nature manipulation.

Sasuke's fireball fed off of the chakra-saturated air, following the source of said chakra and engulfing him as his outfit was stupidly flammable. Seriously, bandages, thick, polyester clothing and plentiful synthetic furs? He was just begging to be barbecued. Had he worn something different he probably would still be alive.

Burnt to the 3rd degree, literally, but alive."

Sasuke arrived at the end of the explanation, his nod confirming Naruto's theory even as the selection screen stopped at "Inuzuka Kiba vs Aburame Shino vs Mochizuki Sato".

The two team 8 members, and the leader of the Kiri team that had approached Naruto made their way towards the arena.

As soon as Hayate said "Start!", Shino turned towards Kiba and spoke in his usual monotone.

"Kiba, we should team up to take down the enemy, then fight it out amongst eachother. That way, in the end it will still be a team 8 victory."

Kiba nodded his consent before the to turned to face Mochizuki.

Mochizuki was calm and composed as he slowly drew his tanto from it's sheathe. He went through a few handsigns before calling out.

" **Kirigakure no Jutsu! (Hidden mist technique)** "

Mist filled the arena floor, blocking the visibility of the three fighters, while Naruto simply facepalmed.

"Mochizuki already lost. His mist isn't thick enough to mess with an Inuzuka's nose, or an Aburame's chakra sensing capabilities."

True to his prediction, the mist receded to show Mochizuki knocked out, a purple eye and a few bugs receding from his shirt.

What did surprise everyone was the cloud of bugs swarming both Kiba and Akamaru. Soon the bugs sucked enough chakra to render both unconscious, giving the victory to Shino who made his way back up the stairs.

"Smart. Set up the doublecross while still inside the mist, knowing that the oponent will act based on what you told him without even verifying it's viability. Pretty damn crafty. Gotta keep an eye on you, Shino." Were Naruto's words, causing the Aburame to adjust his glasses even as he responded tonelessly.

"Thank you, Naruto-san."

All the jounin were impressed at Shino's cold efficiency, and the names started spinning again before stopping on "Nii Yugito vs Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura".

It was a quick fight. The girls had put in 6 months of hard work, but Yugito had been taking her own training seriously for her whole life. She made short work of both girls by using lightning-fast attacks, pouncing on the girls with held senbon acting as claws, slashing at them repeatedly until paralyzing poison and the bloodloss got to them. In the end Naruto still clapped for them, as they at least did their best. They just happened to meet an opponent they could not beat.

"Rock Lee vs Fuu vs Sakama Ayetani" was the following fight. Knowing from Naruto's praise that Lee was a very competent individual who could give her more than a fair share of trouble and maybe force her to rely on her tenant's power, she instead ended the fight against Lee and the other Kiri Nin by jumping as high as she could and blowing a cloud of soporific dust all over the arena, putting both opponents to sleep before they even knew what happened.

"Samui vs Atsui vs C" was the following fight, with Samui winning by using a minor water jutsu to cover C and Atsui in water, before electrifying the water trail as the two engaged in a swordsmanship battle. They both were knocked unconscious.

"Gaara vs Zaku Abumi" was an extremely one-sided match. Zaku kept shooting wind bursts at Gaara whose sand defense simply negated, before a torrent of sand covered him head to toe, and with the clenching of his fingers, his opponent was a bloody paste.

The fight after that was a real surprise.

As soon as "Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neji" came out on the board, Kurenai stiffened up. She had started to reach her hand out to Hinata, intent on asking her if she didn't want to give up before stopping herself. She would not mollycoddle Hinata. Hinata had it in her to succeed, but in order to do that she had to get over her complexes and hangups in life. One of those was the boy currently standing across from her, her older cousin Neji.

"Fight!"

"Hinata-sama, you should resign. You know that you cannot beat me, fate has decreed so. The weak, like you, will forever stay weak, so please, do not make me hur-"

Neji's fate-based diatribe was cut short by a solid straight that had him bouncing off the floor at least three times before stopping.

Everyone who knew the shy Hyuuga had their jaw hanging. Hinata, the ultimate wallflower, had just decked her cousin mid-monologue with no hesitation.

Neji himself could not process what happened. One moment he was putting the weak Hinata in her place, the next one he was looking at the ceiling, a ringing in his ears. Anger flooded his veins as he understood what had happened. Hinata had actually dared to hit him, what's more, she punched him like a common ruffian, instead of using the Hyuuga's Jyuuken!

He stood up, a handsign causing the bloodvessels around his eyes to bulge out as he leveled his best menacing glare on Hinata.

"That shall not happen again, Hinata-sam-"

Once again, Hinata vanished only to reappear within Neji's personal space, this time with her fist imbedded on his gut. Before he could get over his shock and react, Hinata had already grabbed him by the front of his shirt with one hand, before tossing him upwards to an unexpected height, giving Hiruzens flashbacks about his blonde apprentice.

Neji fell rapidly, his mind not processing what was happening even as a solid punch changed his flight trajectory, once again having him bounce on the floor quite a bit before slamming back-first into a wall.

Hinata walked up to him, pulling him to her eye level as she gave him an acid-level glare, before speaking in a menacing tone.

"Hopeless this, Fate that... Bah! Fate is the excuse you use not to acknowledge to yourself that the person you see in the mirror every day is a massive cunt! A weakling would never grow strong? I would never beat you? Well look at that, I just destroyed you so one sidedly that it isn't even funny. You want to be someone's bitch, well you're no longer fate's bitch."

As she said that, Hinata's eyes narrowed as the blood vessels around her eye throbbed to life, intensifying the level of her glare thousand fold.

"You're my bitch now, understand?"

At Neji's defiant look Hinata simple clutched his manhood and _Squeezed_.

"I asked, did you understand?"

Neji nodded rapidly, a squeak leaving his lips as Hinata dropped him on the floor.

"Call the match, proctor, he can't fight anymore."

Hayate called the match in a daze, everyone eyeing Hinata fearfully as she fully ascended the stairs, more than one man clutching their own manhoods. They were surprised further as she headed straight towards Naruto, wrapping her arms around his torso and breathing in his natural scent.

Naruto chuckled lightly before speaking.

"That wasn't the plan, love."

Everyone's jaws fell even further at that, even as Hinata responded after a short giggle.

"Well, he was being such an ass that I just couldn't hold back."

As she finished saying that she pulled back a bit, looking Naruto in the eye as she placed her hand on his chest.

"That kiss you gave to the purple haired proctor... That was hot. Made me wish for one like those myself. Made me want to try kissing her and you at the same time, know how it feels."

Everyone blushed profusely at that, more than a few nosebleeds at that image even as Kurenai shrieked, scandalized.

"Hinata!"

Hinata turned a deadpan gaze on Kurenai as she spoke.

"Oh, as if you don't want a piece of my Naruto yourself, Kurenai-Sensei. But don't worry, I'm not selfish. _I'm totally willing to share him~_ "

Naruto chuckled and spoke up at that.

"Yes, the fact that that sort of thing makes you hot and bothered makes it not selfish at all. Yup."

Hinata lightly smacked Naruto's arm even as the board selected "Sabaku no Temari vs Higurashi Tenten vs Aihiro Tanaka"

Aihiro was the last member of the Kiri team. He was a specialist in tracking and detection, not direct combat, so it was no wonder that he got removed from the fight early on by a fan strike from Temari. The rest of the fight consisted of Tenten throwing all manners of projectiles at Temari only for her to deflect them with her wind jutsu, before using a barrage of concussive wind blasts and then creating a vortex around her, cutting off her air supply and making her fall unconscious.

The following fight was between Nara Shikamaru and Kin Tsuchi, the last member of the sound team. Kin was a specialist in sound based genjutsu through the use of bells and needles, but Shikamaru managed to bypass all of her setups and use his shadow strangling jutsu to knock her out.

"Sabaku no Kankuro vs Kayaba Kagerosa vs Karui" was a quick match. The iwa nin shot an earth spear at Kankuro who seemed to have fallen dead. As soon as he turned his back on what he believed was the corpse of Kankuro, various blades ran through him from the back, killing him almost instantly. Seeing the opponent's willingness to kill and having been hit with a cloud of poison, Karui forfeited and went for medical treatment.

"Haku vs Akimichi Choji vs Kurono Kagome" was the second to last battle, ending very quickly when Haku used her flying needles of death to impale the rock nin Kurono, before vanishing and reappearing behind Choji, a needle jabbed into one of his pressure points stopping from from moving completely.

The last battle announce was "Uzumaki Naruto vs Naruse Hasegawa".

Naruse was the final member of the only rock team to have made it that far, and he was pretty mad about it. He had been one of the last people to leave that devilish forest behind, add to that the fact that he had no warm water left to shower with, his team got offed completely like the band of useless morons they were and that he was facing the cocky bastard from the first phase, and you could say that he was at his wit's end.

Which is why he opened his mouth unnecessarily as soon as Hayate gave the order to begin.

"Uzumaki Naruto, the academy dead last that suddenly gets the best grades in academy history according to that grey haired guy's cards... Smells fishy to me. You don't really look like much, you know. You look like a pansy, behind the desk, pencil pusher. No, what probably happened was that you saw that you were about to fail, so you did your teachers a little 'under the desk work' to get the grades you were given. But how're you going to know any better when your mommy didn't? Your records say you're an orphan, but we both know what really happened. Your whore of a mother and your drunk of a father took one look at you and decided that you'd be worse than both of them together, an absolute failure, so they threw you away like the piece of trash you are!"

Many gasps were heard coming from the observation deck at those words, with more than a few people wanting to go down and strangle the Iwa nin, whether because they liked and respected Naruto, or because they know whose child he was, knew the parents personally and did not want to let that kind of thing pass.

But still, Hasegawa decided to keep digging himself an even deeper grave.

"Don't worry, as soon as I beat you I'm sure even the treehugging morons will come to their minds and toss a piece of trash like you out of the program. Then you can truly follow in your mommy's footsepts, making 50 ryo an hour either on your back or your kn-"

 _ **FEAR. PAIN. DESPAIR. DEATH. ALL CONSUMING. ALL ENCOMPASSING.**_

For a whole two seconds, the two _longest_ seconds in their entire lives, every singly person in the arena felt what had to seem like the biggest, most intense burst of killing intent in the history of ever. Even the Hokage almost fell to his knees due to the sheer pressure, and many of the others near him were either close to, or had actually passed out.

To everyone's surprise, Naruse, who had stopped mid-speech, fell over limply. Hayate checked on him, signaling the medics that his vitals were gone.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Kiba, once everyone had recovered a bit from the ordeal, had to ask.

"What the hell was that? I felt like someone was squeezing my heart real hard! Like death was coming for me!"

Hinata, uncharacteristically serious, was the one to explain.

"Killer intent. Naru-chan may be easygoing and lighthearted for the most part, but one thing that is absolutely tabboo is to offend his parents. What we felt was just residual Killer intent. The real target was that stone bastard."

Hiruzen muttered, impressed.

"To think that he'd kill someone with killer intent alone... You've come far, Naruto..."

Hayate called everyone down to the arena floor, before speaking.

"The ones to have won these battles have qualified for the finals. Each of you will now remove a ball with a number inscribed on it, which will decide the order of the matches in the final."

Everyone went ahead and took a ball, before announcing their numbers.

In the end, the order of the battles was:

1- Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Hinata

2-Uchiha Sasuke vs Sabaku no Gaara

3-Aburame Shino vs Sabaku no Kankuro

4-Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari

5-Nii Yugito vs Fuu

6-Haku vs Samui

The Hokage spoke up after that.

"We will have a month's time between now and the finals as all the invitations are sent to the dignitaries, daimiyo and even Kage. During this time you're free to leave the village for training as long as you make it on time to the finals. Dismissed."

As the people started walking and talking with eachother, one question from Fuu caused everyone to pause.

"Hinata-san... Did you really mean it when you said you didn't mind sharing Naruto-kun's affection?"

Hinata shook her head at that.

"Not at all. He's going to have various wives for various different reasons I can't even begin to tell you, but other than that... I really, really like seeing Naruto conquering other women. Making them squirm and sigh and moan as he does this thing with his tongue..."

She let out a blissful sigh at that, completely unpreoccupied about the fact that they were still in a somewhat public venue.

Naruto spoke up next.

"She's got this thing about manliness. Something like, the manliest man? I think?"

Hinata spoke in a tone used to point out the obvious to idiots.

"My man has to be the manliest of them all. Managing to seduce, satisfy and not get overwhelmed by multiple women has to be the manliest there is. So I'll make sure that my Naru is the manliest of them all."

And like that, amidst blushes and nosebleeds, the chunnin exams preliminaries ended.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! How many of you expected his queen to be Hinata? I bet none of you saw this coming!**

 **The next chapter will not be the third stage yet, instead we'll see a few of the events taking place in the 1 month time period. Jiraiya and Naruto will probably have their first meeting, and I'll try to make it as entertaining as possible.**

 **Well, that said, please leave a review, favorite and/or follow on my story, as it helps get it to reach more people, and enjoy the rest of your day! Ja ne!**


	20. Chapter 20: Seals and rewards

**Not mine.**

 _ **-Hokage's tower, 2 days after the end of the prelims-**_

"I'm here for the data on the cursed seal, Hokage-Sama."

Hiruzen eyed Naruto speculatively, noting his clothing similar to the one he last saw him in except for the flipped colours between his slacks and vest, being dark blue and black respectively, and quietly asked himself whether it was the original or a clone.

Nowadays, you could never tell.

Hiruzen nodded at that, going through a series of handsigns and revealing a hidden drawer on his desk, removing a sealed manilla folder and handing it to Naruto.

"This is what I have here, but it is not all."

Hiruzen took a deep breath and steepled his hands, his thoughts bouncing around his head for a bit.

' _Should I?... The longer this takes, the worse the eventual result will be..._ '

Decision made, Hiruzen looked Naruto in the eye, still pained by the fact that the usual warmth that used to be there for him was missing, as he spoke.

"The rest can be given to you by the person who first examined the seal. His name is Jiraiya..."

"The toad Sage and one of the Sannin, yes I know. Where can I find him?"

"Right now? Try the hot springs."

Naruto gave a curt, professional nod before vanishing in a Shunshin. As soon as Naruto left, Hiruzen let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his face with his hands.

' _Nothing good is going to come out of this..._ '

 _ **-Konoha hot springs-**_

"Hehehehe"

Jiraiya giggled lecherously as he watched the female bathers, their supple, sinuous bodies bared for his trusty telescope, from his position high in the trees, outside of their view.

One should take notice of how, even in shinobi villages, people tended to not look up.

Suddenly Jiraiya found himself falling to the ground, smacking into it face first and getting a swollen eye for his efforts.

"Ouch! If I find the fucker who pushed me..."

"You're going to thank them for not having tossed you into the hot springs for the beating of a lifetime, you old pervert."

Jiraiya whirled around at that, his gaze falling on the impassive for of Uzumaki Naruto, his eyes holding healthy amounts of disgust for him, which he presumed to be for having found him peeking on the women.

"What'd you do that for, brat!? Do you know how much research is lost with every second I'm not up there, watching?"

Naruto sneered at him before speaking.

"I don't care about your research or anything of the sort, I came here to get the information on Anko's You-know-what. I made a promise to try to help her, _and I never break a promise_."

Jiraiya turned serious at that, having noticed the way he stressed the last sentence.

"So, you know."

"Know what?"

"That I'm your godf-"

Jiraiya felt himself getting interrupted by a knee embedding itself in his stomach, causing him to cough out a gob of blood before Naruto took hold of his collar, headbutting him once, twice, three times and snapping his nose.

In his daze he couldn't even muster the strength to try to defend himself, and Naruto bodily threw him, causing him to slam into and tear down the wooden fence enclosing the female side of the hot springs, and fall straight into the bath itself.

The women that had been bathing shrieked and hurriedly covered up, preparing to beat the old pervert up when they noticed a seriously menacing form walking towards him.

Naruto's steps were slow, purposeful. He rolled his sleeves further up, his face stone hard as he did. Step by step, Naruto walked into the female side of the hot spring, before taking step after step on the spring itself, heading to where he knew Jiraiya had fallen in.

Kneeling down on the surface of the water as if it were solid ground, Naruto reached with his hand into the water, taking hold of Jiraiya's mane of hair before pulling him above the water.

The old pervert was gurgling water even as Naruto kneed him in the stomach, again and again, all the while speaking in a calm tone that belied the full extent of his rage.

"You know, I get that you had responsibilities towards the village, I really do, but you also had responsibilities towards me. Both for me, and for the promise you made the man you claim to have loved like a son. There were many ways you could have done both."

As Naruto said that, he threw Jiraiya by the hair into the changing rooms of the hot springs. He kept his beating up of the old men even as he spoke, more than a bit of blood tainting his fists now.

"You periodically touched down on the village to report to the old man. You could have taken some time to go meet me, but instead you took your sweet time peeping on these poor women. Hell, you could have even just sent a shadow clone. You didn't need to raise me, just to be there for me. To show me someone else cared."

By now, Naruto gripped Jiraiya by the throat and lifted him to his eye level.

"Did you know that, until I was six, I cried myself to sleep? Asking whether someone would ever love me, whether or not I had any semblance of family to hug me, and show me they cared? In the beginning, only the old man, Teuchi-Jiji and Ayame-neechan were there, but they had their own lives to manage, and they couldn't give me all I needed. So I was forcedd to grow up, and skip my childhood entirely.

And now you want to just walk into my life, say you're my godfather, and expect me to take it all in stride, as if you were there all along for me when I actually did need you? No, fuck that.

And fuck you."

Naruto dropped the dazed and almost catatonic Toad Sage, more than a few people peeking into their personal affair. Fixing his vest and smoothing down his slacks, Naruto spat on the ground in front of Jiraiya before speaking.

"Give everything you have on the curse seal to the old man, he'll make sure it gets to me. Try to get close to me in any way and I'll give you a beating to make this one feel like a fluffy pillow, and If you ever peep on someone that's dear to me, _**I will end you**_."

Not waiting for a response, Naruto simply walked out of the onsen by the front door. He stopped by the front counter, telling the cute attendant to send the bill for all damages to Jiraiya of the Sannin's account before walking off, heading home to the Namikaze compound in order to finish some of his preparations.

 _ **-Same time, Hokage's office-**_

Hiruzen sighed heavily at the scene he just finished watching through his crystal ball. He couldn't fault Naruto for what he did to Jiraiya, after all he explained all of his failings and the very basic, very obvious ways they could have been avoided.

The Tsunade-level wallop the blonde had laid upon the sage made him cringe, though. He saw more than a bit of the boy's mother right there.

Deactivating his crystal ball, Hiruzen turned his focus to the various clones he had doing paperwork, sending out invitations for the chunnin exam finals and getting the sealing materials and room Naruto had asked for in order.

He could only sigh in the expectation of another headache, as a matter related to the Snake Sannin and his cursed seal had to be discussed with the council as a matter of village security.

' _That's not going to be a huge clusterfuck at all..._ '

 _ **-Hyuuga Estate, Clanhead's home-**_

"Hinata."

"Father."

Hyuuga Hiashi and Hyuuga Hinata were sat in seiza across from eachother, a short, round table with two steaming mugs of green tea in between them. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife as the two simply kept their gazes locked on eachother's, a battle of wills to see who would look away first.

Hiashi broke the silence first after five minutes.

"I heard about your victory over your cousin."

"I expected you to."

"I was told of everything that happened there. Of how easily you defeated Neji."

"I expected you to have heard of that as well."

"Is there any specific reason why you hid your skills from me?"

Hinata looked gobsmacked at that for a second, before regaining her impassiveness.

"Excuse me? Are you truly asking that?"

"I did not misspeak, as far as I am aware. I would like an explanation."

"Maybe it's the fact that I don't owe you any satisfaction?"

"Hinata, I am your clanhead and your father!"

At that moment, something snapped inside Hinata's head. She was going to do what she felt like, consequences be damned.

Hiashi was surprised when his daughter, her face still impassive and composed, stood up and threw the wooden table across the room with the barest flick of her foot, displaying tremendous skill.

"First of all, _Father_ , the fact that you put your title as the clanhead ahead of your title as my father is very telling. You lost the right to call me your daughter when you allowed the elders and the members of the main house to tread on me as if I were a welcome mat!

You yourself were the worst of all! You were supposed to love an nurture, especially ever since mother died! But instead you treated me like trash, because you believed I wasn't strong enough.

Now tell me, what would have happened to Hanabi if I had suddenly showed my increased skills? Every bit of abuse directed at me would turn to her, and worse, because her 'Failure of a sister' became stronger than her. I promised mother that I'd take care of my baby sister, and everything I did was in order to do just that!

So be aware that I won't play your little mind and blame games. I do not give a fuck about your wants, or the wants of the ' _Esteemed elders_ ' of the Hyuuga clan. All I care about right now is Hanabi, and if anyone dares to threaten, or in any way endanger or abuse her, I **will kill them.** Are we understood?"

Hiashi, despite his impassive face, had beads of sweat running down his forehead. Hinata was releasing a fearsome amount of killing intent, and her body language spoke of skill and fearlessness, so she meant every word she said. But still, he was the leader of the Hyuuga clan, and he would not allow himself to be talked to that way.

"How dare yo-*Urk!*"

Hiashi's words were interrupted when the killing intent in the room skyrocketed, choking him up.

" **I said, are we understood?** "

Hiashi could do nothing more than give her a minute nod before the killing intent vanished. Hinata herself nodded lightly before vacating the room, giving a slight smile to the two terrified Cadet Branch members that were in charge of taking care of the clanhead and his company's needs.

 _ **-Konoha Hospital-**_

"I see you've met Naruto."

"Mhmph."

Hiruzen watched his student's state with equal measures of sadness, disappointment and satisfaction. Jiraiya had a broke nose, jaw, arm, ankle and collarbone, alongside with various cracked ribs, and even a bit of internal damage.

It brought back memories of Jiraiya attempting to peep on his sole female student. That thought brought a nostalgic smile to his face.

"I did warn you that things would not go as you expected them to."

Jiraiya grabbed a pen, writting on a pad of paper.

'You think?'

Hiruzen chuckled lightly at that.

"Unfortunately it seems this is not the end of your troubles. All of the damages to the bathouse were billed directly to your account, and, well..."

Hiruzen showed the gigantic expense list to Jiraiya, causing the toad sage to whimper before passing out on his bed.

 _ **-Elsewhere, Fire Country-**_

Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke, being greeted by Ibuki who took his blade away from him to store away. He made his way down the empty hallways while whistling a merry tune, the beating he had given Jiraiya having made him feel lighter than he had in a while.

Entering his office, he found doctor Kasugano smoking a cigarette while waiting for him. As soon as she saw him, she started speaking.

"Jean finished cracking the grey-haired one open, and the transcripts are at your desk. I took the liberty to separate the things I believe you'll find more interesting and useful for you to examine first. Other than that, projects S-01 and S-02 are ready for transport. How is this going to be done?"

"I'll have my clones tag your lab and then reverse-summon you to my parents' place back in Konoha. Project TC is finished and only requires charging, as soon as it's done charging you'll be moved in alongside some of your own projects. I have all the conditions ready for your stay."

Kasugano Mashiro simply nodded before making her way back to her lab to finish her preparations.

Naruto read some of the transcripts Jean had made of what she had found in Kabuto's mind, hmm'ing and haw'ing occasionally.

" _ROOT_ time, Sasori's spy, Orochimaru's bitch boy... Kabuto, your life was everything but uneventful. I actually feel kind of sorry for you know... Or I would, had you not turned into such an asshole... Oh, what's this?"

Naruto flipped the page over, reading the lines, his eyes filling with glee as he started cackling, almost evilly.

"Oh yes! This is just perfect! A near-instant regeneration technique that can be triggered automatically to reanimate dead cell tissue and multiply it, without causing advanced aging? And it's only limit is your chakra capacity? Kabuto you fucking genius, you just made my day."

Naruto closed his eyes, focusing on projecting his thoughts as loud as he could across the headquartes.

' _Jean, I want you to copy every single one of Kabuto's shinobi-related skills, dissociate the emotions from the memories and copy them into my own head._ '

Naruto felt what could only be described as a mental nod before a flood of information filled his head, causing his eyes to flutter lightly as he tagged, catalogued and separated everything.

Looking down at his hands, Naruto willed a chakra scalpel into existance, grinning at that.

"Things just get more and more fun."

 _ **-2 days later-**_

"Uzumaki Naruto, do you know why you are currently in the presence of the Konoha council?"

Naruto shrugged nonchallantly at that, before Homura kept speaking in his position as one of the elders, the members of both the civillian and Shinobi council, plus the Hokage present in the room.

"You have been called here based on the word of Hokage-sama, who said that you claimed to be capable of removing Orochimaru's cursed seal from a host. Is that correct?"

Naruto yawned before speaking in a lazy tone, similar to Shikaku's usual one.

"First of all, no, I did not claim to be capable of removing it just like that, I said that I could possibly find a way to block, or even remove it if given the time and resources to do so. I may be a consummate badass, but I am not a miracle worker. Yet."

The majority of the shinobi council members chuckled at the blonde's cheeky response, even while the members of the civillian council, and especially elder Koharu, scowled at Naruto's words.

Koharu was the one to speak up.

"Are you telling me that this _boy_ is capable of doing what our best seal master could not after years of research? That is preposterous!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"So, you're saying that I'm incapable of doing it, and, by proxy, calling the Hokage either a liar or incompetent for bringing the subject up to the council in the first place. Is that it?"

Hiashi's eyebrow rose slightly at that.

' _Nice move._ '

Koharu scowled even harder, but seeing the look the Hokage shot her and the way this would play out if she continued antagonizing the boy on this matter, she decided to drop it for now. Seeing that no one intended to speak up, Homura was the one to speak up at that.

"I propose that, during the process of analysis of the seal, we keep one of the seal masters close by in order to oversee the process and insure no harm comes to Tokubetsu Jounin Mitarashi Anko, and that, in case you do manage to find a way to remove the seal, the removal is made in full view of the entire council."

Naruto shook his head at that.

"Denied and denied, I'll be making use of Uzumaki sealing style techniques and I'd rather protect my clan secrets from outsiders, thanks."

The room erupted into bedlam as cries for imprisonment and execution rang from the civillian side of things, while the Shinobi side watched the proceedings and kept watching Naruto, trying to see how Minato's son, for that was the only logical conclusion, would fare in this situation.

Naruto, for his part, still looked completely relaxed and at ease in the room, completely disregarding the screams and screeches of the civillian heads. As the noise level reduced, and eventually stopped altogether, Naruto spoke up again.

"Great. Now that you're done throwing your tantrums like fussy toddlers, I'd like to remind you that clan secrets have a whole set of rules geared towards their protection. No matter what you say or do, nothing would change the fact that you won't get shit from me, and if you try to do anything stupid I'll just go to the Daimiyo, show him the rule book and let him decide on who's right."

Kagetora Hazama, a rich civillian and the owner of a textile production franchise spoke up at that.

"Are you threatening us?"

Naruto responded in a completely nonchalant tone.

"Yes, very much so. Fuck with me and I'll destroy you, first with the laws, then with my sword. Now, are we done here?"

Before anything more could be said, the Hokage nodded towards Naruto.

"You are free to leave."

Naruto gave the room a two-finger salute before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, surprising the shinobi heads as the council chambers were supposed to be protected against Shunshin.

Haruno Sakiri, Haruno Kizashi's older sister and wealthy head of a retail chain spoke up.

"Hokage-Sama, you will allow that boy to show the council such disrespect with no punishment?"

"Perhaps, had you not disrespected his skills, his integrity and his clan secrets, then he would have not disrespected you in response? Does it sound too farfetched to say that respecting someone leads to receiving respect yourself?"

Various pairs of pursed lips were the response to that, before the Hokage kept speaking.

"I will have Jiraiya assisting with the process of analyzing Anko's seal, but he will be under written oath, stamped by both me and the daimiyo, to never use nor divulge any clan secrets he may witness under the penalty of imprisonment for life, or death. The same arrangement shall be made in case a removal is possible. This is my word as Hokage, and it shall be followed. Meeting adjourned."

 _ **-Sealing room below the Hokage tower, Konoha-**_

"Okay Anko, show me your seal."

Anko removed her trenchcoat and lowered the collar of her short-sleeved mesh shirt, revealing the tomoe-shaped back mark marring her skin.

With a pair of glasses similar to those of a jewel appraiser, Naruto looked at every inch of the seal as he poked and prodded at it.

"This is some high level compression right there. Impressive."

Anko glared at him at his comment, prompting him to raise his eyebrow as he spoke.

"Just because he's evil doesn't making him less of a genius than he really is. But, I'm better than him and I'm gonna get this thing off of you. Now you'll have to lie down and activate it."

"No! I won't use this filthy thing, ever!"

Naruto shook his hands at that.

"No, you don't have to actually make use of it. I'll..."

As he spoke, Naruto pulled a pair of scrolls and started a series of brushstrokes on it, before moving towards Anko and resuming.

"Use a modified supression and displacement seal on you. Instead of trying to restrict the power into the seal, it will make an extradimensional space that the seal will connect to and expand into thinking that it's your body. The readings from this extradimensional space will be transmitted directly to the scroll I connected to it, and it will give me the full structure of the uncompressed seal while in use, and every effect that the seal causes on your body."

As he finished his explanation, Naruto drew a very small set of squiggles in a circular fashion around Anko's cursed seal, before grabbing the blank scroll and placing it over said seal.

"Now, Anko, allow your chakra to flow into the cursed seal as if you were trying to activate it."

Anko was still very reluctant to activate it, but the explanation somewhat mollified her, so she did as told. She felt a slight stinging pain on her collarbone, but other than that, the pain that came when Orochimaru had activated the seal remotely when she met him a few years ago in a mission was completely absent.

Naruto turned his look towards the other scroll, seeing as the sealing formulae he had drawn on it were replaced by a very large amount of flame-like markings, before the markings started splitting apart and reshaping themselves as obscure, squiggly characters forming certain patterns.

"Orochimaru you crafty son of a bitch! He added various interconnected layers of seals and had them working seamlessly together, and the signature and emission between each of them was so similar that people tended to work under the assumption that it was all a single seal. That's what made it impossible to crack, you were trying to get rid of a non-existent seal with the characteristics of the 3 individual existing seals."

Naruto bit his lower lip as one of his clones grabbed the receiver scroll and placed it closer to his face, allowing him to read into it further.

Jiraiya had been looking from over Naruto's shoulder, his body recovered enough to do this procedure by the use of medical jutsu, and he had to say that he felt way out of his depth at what he saw. The last times he felt like that were when he tried interpreting the Hiraishin when tasked by Minato to try to crack it, to ensure enemies couldn't reverse-engineer it, or when he watched Kushina at work with her Uzumaki witchcraft - and no matter what anyone said, the Uzumaki seal prowess made their seals into magic - so seeing Naruto working like this brought a feeling of nostalgia, while simultaneously bringing a flare of pain. Not he physical type, though his jaw was still very sore, but the emotional pain at the words Naruto had told him while beating him like an unwanted stepchild.

And boy, that was an embarassing situation.

Naruto Hmm'ed and Haww'd as he analyzed the thing, before flashing Anko a smirk.

"I found a way to break this thing open!"

Anko gave him a hopeful look while Jiraiya kept trying to interpret what he was seeing. Having no luck with it, he resorted to... _Asking_. Knowing that a 14 year old, Uzumaki or not, had him askin about seals bruised his pride as a sealmaster.

"How?"

Naruto turned to him with a scowl, but decided to explain for Anko's beneffit.

"The layered seals I spoke of are 3. The uppermost one is a variation of the spiral chakra absorption seal, though an inferior version to it. Unlike the original which can be used to literally drain chakra out of a free-flying jutsu, this one gathers energy over time as it is idle. The Energy it gathers is natural energy."

"How do you know about Natural energy?/What is Natural Energy?"

Jiraiya and Anko, respectively, asked.

Naruto gave Jiraiya a clipped answer of "My summons" before turning to Anko and explaining.

"Natural energy is a form of energy released by the earth, trees, plants and all living beings. It's hard to sense, and harder to harness. It is very volatile, and if improperly used could cause a variety of negative effects. Those trained in the art of harnessing Natural Energy and mixing it with their own physical and spiritual energies in order to create natural chakra are called sages.

This is a big deal, as Natural chakra is more potent than normal chakra, giving the user a set of abilities specific to their style, by which I mean the manner in which they collect and use the chakra, and sensing and empathetic abilities.

The most common way to become a sage is to be inducted into the use of the sage arts by a summons clan, though there are people said to have harnessed it on their own through meditation.

But, the reason not everyone with a summoning contract is out there throwing overpowered jutsu and reading eachother's thoughts is because of the level of difficulty. You need to get into proper contact with the Nature itself, be capable of completely stilling yourself into a state of meditative rest and have good chakra control and a means to syphon off the Natural Energy in case you lose control over how much you draw in.

Because of that, normally the first layer of the seal itself would have killed you. It would have either made you explode, turn into a frog statue, a tree, a lizard, or any other such effects, but, the second layer takes care of that.

The second layer has a tiny amount of a chemical cocktail that, based on it's behaviour in the presence of the natural energy you absorb, turns it into readily available nature chakra, forgoing the whole exercise of balancing your energies. The reason why this method is flawed, in our views at least, probably not in orochimaru's, is that this cocktail naturally possesses a mix of hormones and hormone-like compounds that cause increased aggressive behaviours, lowered inhibitions, suppression of cognitive function to a certain degree and unstable, psychotic behavior. This cocktail also has an addictive aspect to it, which is further compounded on by the potency of the natural energy, making the seal user dependent on it.

The third seal is there only to allow this dark, corrupted form of Natural Chakra to flow into your coils in an uniform manner that would not cause them to rupture and kill you. Still, with the potency of Natural Chakra created _outside_ of the body, most normal people wouldn't survive the application of the seal, much less a single use."

Jiraiya was gobsmacked, both at Naruto's and his former teammate's genius, while Anko gave Naruto a pleading look as she asked.

"When can you remove it?"

Naruto scratched his chin pensively.

"Well, I will have to create a similarly layered counter-seal in order to simultaneously wipe out the three parts of the cursed seal, and those aren't exactly easy to make... It'll take me a few hours to make it, give or take, and by this time tomorrow you should be free of this seal."

Anko sat up and surprised Naruto by pulling him into a desperate, wanting kiss before pulling back.

"This one was simply for the fact that you tried helping me, and because you're really hot. But if you manage to remove this monstrocity from me, I'll let you ride me like a bycicle, as often and as hard as you want to."

Naruto froze for a second, a tiny trickle of blood flowing down his right nostril as he waved Anko off. The purplette donned her trenchcoat again and blew him a kiss before leaving the sealing room and closing the door.

"Kid, you've got real talent, you know that right? I happen to have an eye for talent, and I'd love to have the opportunity to help train you, as I did your father."

Naruto scowled heavily at Jiraiya as he removed his specialty goggles.

"I already warned you against getting close to me, Pervert. The only reason I'm with you in this room right now is because there was no other way, but don't think for a second I'm any more accepting of you than I was during the beating I gave you."

"Oh come on kid, think about it! I could help make you as strong as your dad, and even teach you some of his jutsu!"

Naruto's eyes widened incredulously at that, and Jiraiya was expecting Naruto to be chomping at the bit to learn his dad's jutsu...

"D-did you just... Did you just try to bribe me with my dad's jutsu?"

Jiraiya blanched rapidly at that.

"No, kid, you don't understand, I-"

"Oh, I understand alright! You were trying to force me into forgiving you by holding my father's techniques hostage! You fucking bastard!"

Naruto hit Jiraiya with a professional grade right hook that would make Tsunade proud before leaving the sealing room, his chest heaving as he tried to get his anger under control. Everyone did their best to stay away from the blond, as even restraining it as much as he could, a cloud of killing intent still clung to him and spread about 5 feet all around him.

Naruto headed to the ANBU HQ, going into one of the empty training grounds before unleashing his rage in the form of various destructive S-rank jutsu.

 _ **-Elsewhere in Konoha-**_

Hatake Kakashi, the Jounin sensei of team 7, was making his way towards the Uchiha district.

After the events of the chunnin exam's preliminaries, he had approached his entire team with the intention of giving them extra training. Naruto had bowed out, claiming to already have his training regimen, while Sakura refused as she intended to go to a month-long medi-nin program in order to better her medical skills.

Sakura had, instead, suggested that Kakashi gave Sasuke his whole attention for the month, as he had to face that murderous sand-user, while she was out of the exams, and Naruto already had plans. Kakashi took her words into consideration, and was now en-route to sequester Sasuke for a month of outside-of-the-village training.

He made his way to the only source of sound in the empty, somewhat desolate district, finding Sasuke going through a set of handsigns in the scorch-marked clearing.

The boy breathed in deeply and shot a fireball larger than his previous ones, his improved chakra control from the team waterwalking exercises allowing him to waste less chakra than usual.

The fireball dug a trench into the ground before gliding over the lake, eventually disappearing into the water with a cloud of steam.

"Kakashi? I wasn't expecting you. I'm not late to a training session or anything, right?"

"No, not really. I came here to take you for a special, private training session."

Sasuke scowled at that.

"Kakashi, I won't accept favoritism."

"It isn't favoritism. Your teammates were the ones who suggested it. Well, Sakura did. Naruto simply said that he already had a training schedule in mind and wouldn't really need my help. Sakura said she's going to attend a med-nin seminar, or course, or some such, so... It's just me and you."

Sasuke turned to look at Kakashi, seemingly searching for something in his posture, before walking into his house.

"I'll pack my gear. Be ready in 10."

Kakashi sweatdropped at that.

' _Wow, and I thought the teacher made the demands..._ '

A few minutes later, the two were leaving Konoha for a month.

 _ **-Uzumaki-Namikaze estate-**_

Hours after getting scolded by Phoenix about the damage caused to the ANBU training grounds due to his temper tantrum, Naruto had started setting up more than a few sealing arrays at his home's basement, connecting them to the existing sealing scheme and to the master control. After checking the schematics one last time and finding no flaws, he finished his work and went to his backyard. Placing a red-coloured tag on the ground, he went through a set of handsings.

" **Kuchiyose no Jutsu! (Summoning Jutsu)** "

Kasugano, a few of her staff and the materials related to projects S-01 and S-02 were summoned to his backyard. A few instructions later and her lab had been set up in the basement.

"Well, Naruto-Sama, it seems like your plans are progressing nicely, huh?"

"...You keep using this lord/master bullshit on purpose just to annoy me, don't you?"

"Right in one, Naruto-sama!"

Naruto sighed at Mashiro's cheerful exclamation, before turning serious again.

"What are your projections on the integration of the HB sample on S-01 and S-02?"

Mashiro winced at that.

"Bad. Every simulation we run has the samples fighting eachother in an attempt to become the dominant. They're gradually taking longer and longer to begin this mutual destruction process, which means that we're managing to increase the stability bit by bit, but at this rate we'll only be able to complete this project in a year, at least. Nowhere near your preferred deadline at all."

Naruto gave Mashiro a mischievous look as he spoke.

"Give me a week, and I can make sure you have it ready by the end of the month."

Mashiro opened her mouth to exclaim about how it was impossible, but she managed to hold herself back and let out a heavy sigh at that.

"I'd say it's impossible, but everything you've done so far has proven that you do not give a damn about that word."

"Oh my, Mashiro. I finally managed to teach you something! Who's the smart one now, huh?"

Mashiro smirked at Naruto.

"Still me."

Naruto just pouted, causing Mashiro to giggle before both started laughing.

 _ **-The next day, sealing room-**_

"Anko, you'll have to get naked in order for me to procceed with the removal, so Jiraiya you'll have to leave the room."

"What!? I need to stay and make sure nothing bad happens during the process!"

Anko gripped a Kunai tight as she glared at Jiraiya.

"Leave now or you'll leave later with one less appendage. Choose."

Jiraiya bolted out of the room almost instantly before Naruto locked the door behind him. As he turned around her watched Anko start to lift the hem of her shirt after having taken off her trenchcoat.

"Err... You don't really need to strip. I just wanted a valid reason to kick Jiraiya out of here, don't want him copying my family techniques."

Anko pouted lightly at that, before she went back to removing her shirt.

"Well, I'd feel safer if you saw every inch of my body to make sure nothing else was wrong with the seal. It's a perfectly reasonable motive to take off my clothes, isn't it?"

Naruto chuckled lightly at that even as Anko finished taking off her mesh shirt, revealing her large, pink-tipped breasts. Her areola were about as large as a quarter, with eraser-sized nipples, both in the same rosy pink. Her stomach was flat and showed hints of a higher muscular definition, though her waist was slim. Her slim waist, with her large breasts and her wide hips gave her a perfect hourglass shape.

She tugged down her tan miniskirt, revealing a pair of purple panties that were somewhat tight against her large, well-toned ass. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, while Anko just shrugged.

Anko finished stripping unabashedly bending over forwards and slowly and sensualy sliding her panties down her legs, revealing everything to the blonde. Her cheeks were parted, revealing a pale pink, puckered hole, and her tidy jade gate below it. The lips were slightly plump, which normally hid her sacred place, though her position showed it in it's full beauty. Her slit was topped with a small button, slightly bigger than her nipple, and above that a patch of hair in the shape of an inverted triange that proved that Anko was a natural purplette.

Managing to shrug off his first instinct of singing Ode to Joy, Naruto ordered Anko to lie down on the steel table he had installed in the room, before strapping her to it by the wrists, ankles, forehead and waist. He gave her a rubber mouthpiece to bite down on before walking around her, stopping next to her cursed seal.

Frowning in concentration, Naruto started going through a set of handsigns, his chakra spiking before he pressed his finger right in the center of the cursed seal.

' _ **Contact Sealing Method!**_ '

Using one of the Uzumaki clan's strongest weapons, something that only seal masters of the highest caliber learnt, the ability to materialize seals out of their chakra as long as they completely understood it's structure, workings, effects and compression method, Naruto applied his counterseal to Anko's cursed seal.

The purplette bit down hard on the mouthpiece as she felt an intense burning sensation on her shoulder, before the seal spread around her body in the form of flames. She felt lightheaded and felt her consciousness fading, before falling unconscious.

Naruto, for his part, was watching as his own seal shredded Orochimaru's security measures apart, causing the seal to uncompress and to completely cover Anko. Before long, however, the flames started receding to their starting point before turning into the three tomoe marking again, before the turned a bright red.

A high level of sheer agony woke Anko up from her unconscious spell, causing her to scream into her mouthpiece as the seal was literally burned away from her. A few seconds later, the pain receded altogether, leaving only some soreness.

Naruto unstrapped the lightheaded Anko from the table even as she gathered her wits.

As soon as she remembered what happened, her passing out and the pain on her shoulder, she turned to Naruto and asked with urgency.

"Is it over? Did you do it? Is it gone?"

Naruto smiled at Anko handing her a small mirror before speaking.

"The procedure was a success. I completely erased the cursed seal from you."

Anko saw the reflexion of her blemish-free skin, and she couldn't believe it. After so many years, she was finally free from that bastard's influence!

A massive grin spread across her face even as tears fell from her eyes. She met Naruto's satisfied gaze before jumping on him, kissing the daylights out of him. Naruto responded by kissing back, his hands finding her waist.

Anko pulled back from the kiss, her warm breath tickling Naruto's face as she spoke.

"You know, after that stunt you pulled in the second stage, I already intended to to eventually give you a shot at my bed. Doing this just let you skip the hoop jumping that I intended to put you through."

 _ **Lemon starts here**_

Shrugging off any further inhibitions, Naruto proceeded to divest himself out of his own clothes, before pressing his bare body against Anko's own, allowing her to feel his warm, throbbing member against her stomach.

She looked down at it in wonder, letting her fingertips lightly touch his sensitive head.

"How big is it?"

Naruto grunted, feeling a jolt as Anko's fingers touched it, before answering in a husky tone.

"9 inches long, 3 1/2 wide"

"Oh Kami that's big!"

Naruto pulled Anko tighter against him, her breasts squished against his own chest, his throbbing member pressed between their stomachs and covering them in his pre. He ground himself against her for a while before lifting her by the ass and carrying her to the steel table.

Sitting her down on it, Naruto started laying soft kisses on her neck, before going down her collarbone, her chest, giving the canyon between her breasts a lick, before kissing down her stomach, tongueing her bellybutton before reaching her hipbone and licking at it.

Pulling back, Naruto used his hands to spread Anko's legs open, revealing her wet gash. Breathing her tangy, bittersweet scent in deeply, Naruto licked his way up her thigh while his hand caressed her side.

Anko could only moan and shiver in pleasure at Naruto's ministrations, her hands tangling on Naruto's long hair as she tried nudging him towards her core.

Naruto didn't give her that satisfaction yet, giving her butterfly kisses all around her outter lips while his fingers played on her light, purple patch of hair, before he finally gave Anko's center one long, deep lick, from the bottom up, the tip of his tongue flicking her nub and causing her to let out a long, drawn-out groan as a jolt went up her entire body.

Naruto repeated this action, building up Anko's pleasure, lick after lick, before he clamped his lips around her clit, applying chakra to his lips and to his tongue as he sucked it hard, while simultaneously flicking it with the tip of his tongue in random directions, causing Anko to moan and shudder as she came, her juices squirting out and covering Naruto's chin and chest.

The blonde dipped down and licked lower, gathering her juices on his tongue before swallowing, causing Anko's eyes to shine with a renewed lust. She pulled him back to his feet, claiming his lips even as she positioned his member's head at her entrance.

Wrapping her legs around his ass, she pulled him to her, relishing the feel of his cock slowly sinking into her flesh, stretching her wider than she evr felt before.

Naruto looked at her face, a question in his eyes, but she anticipated it.

"No, I'm not a virgin, but you're my first actual man. Only -hnng- toys, and girlfriends before. None as biiiiiiiig - oh kami - as you, though. Hnng!"

Anko's response made Naruto even more eager, causing him to press even deeper into her, making the purplette bite her lower lip hard enough to draw blood at the mixture of pleasure and sore fullness.

Naruto bottomed out after a while, his pelvis and Anko's kissing as they both relished the feeling of mutual pleasure.

Naruto attacked Anko's mouth, licking her lips before completely dominating her tongue, even as one of his hands caressed and fondly fondled her breasts, alternating between them. His other hand kept her waist in place as he steadily thrust in and out.

Naruto sped up the pace of his thrusts, his mouth going down to Anko's neck, nipping at it before going down to where her cursed seal used to be and licking all over it, relieving her soreness.

Soon enough Naruto was jackhammering into Anko, their moans, groans and grunts filling the room alongside the soundsof the smacking flesh and the smell of sweat and sex.

The blonde bent down to kiss Anko's breast, taking her nipple into his mouth and licking, sucking and twirling it with his tongue, while letting his now-free hand roam to her mound. Trapping her nub with his thumb, he started rapidly rubbing circles on it while releasing bursts of chakra, causing Anko to cry out as a massive orgasm took over her body, causing her juices to squirt out again, this time covering Naruto's waist and crotch, her toes curling and her fingers digging into his back to the point of drawing blood.

Naruto had been building up to his own orgasm as well, and the rhythmic squeezing of Anko's warm flesh forced him to release, painting her insides white with his seed.

 _ **Lemon End**_

Naruto pulled out of Anko, his member still half-erect as he spoke in a wistful tone.

"I wish we could continue, god knows I'd enjoy it, but unfortunately we have to cut this short."

"But why? I was having fun!" Anko whine childishly, only for Naruto to answer in a chiding tone.

"You know as well as I do that with the time we locked ourselves in here, and the fact that we kicked Jiraiya out, they're probably assembling an ANBU team to bust in here, right? You're about as loved by the civillian council as I am, and they'll take any chance to screw either of us over, and not in the good way. Screwing both over? Bonus for them."

Grumbling in a low tone, Anko collected her clothes and dressed herself, using her purple panties to trap the flood of come inside of her. Seeing Naruto's raised eyebrow at that, she explained.

"I'll be holding onto the souvenier of my first proper screw for a bit longer at least."

Shrugging at that, Naruto dressed himself as well after cleaning off his boxer shorts. By the end of it, though Anko was visibly worn and ruffled, her hair somewhat mussed and her clothes crumpled, Naruto looked as composed as when he first entered the room.

That just increased the amount of respect Anko felt for the blonde. He could basically screw a woman in a restaurant bathroom and anyone who saw him would have no inkling of an idea of what happened.

"You're going to teach me how to do that."

Naruto smirked teasingly at her even as he opened the door, revealing a full squad of ANBU outfitted as if they were going to war being held back by the Hokage, while the members of both councils watched from the side, alongside Jiraiya.

The doorhinge squeaked, causing everyone's eyes to turn to Naruto and Anko. At seeing Anko's look, most people turned incredulous at what seemed to have happened, but Tsume took a deep sniff before her mouth exploded into a massive grin.

"Daring, aren't we, Anko? So, how was it?"

"It was amazing! He's a fucking pro, I tell you that! And he's hung like a horse!"

"Really? How large?"

Anko placed her hands apart at the aproximate length, causing Tsume's eyes to light up with glee even as the rest of the people in the room shuffled awkwardly at their talk.

The Hokage was the one to break up their girl talk.

"So, how did it go?"

Anko stopped to think for a bit.

"Well, it was painful, I tell you that. I remember a few periods of being lightheaded, and I passed out once or twice, but it worked! I'm free of that bastard's mark. Obviously I had to reward blondie here for a job well done, and I would have kept rewarding him had he not been considerate for your time. As it is, I'm contemplating taking him home right now to keep rewarding him."

While many men gave Naruto envious looks, the blonde shook his head with a friendly chuckle.

"As much as I would enjoy having some coffee with you, Anko, unfortunately I have to prepare a few things for the chunnin exam right now. I'll try to seek you out when I can, though. And I will keep my promise from back at the forest. 9 times in 30 minutes."

Anko started drooling lightly at that thought before she stepped forward towards Naruto before giving him a soul-searing kiss. Then she moved towards Tsume, placed a hand on her shoulder and vanished in a Shunshin.

By the time everyone thought to look back at where Naruto was, the blonde was already gone, having left in his own Shunshin earlier to do god-know-what.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Another chapter done! First lemon ever, hope it was good. Naruto's ventures are going to be explored more and more over time, as will his inter-personal relationships.**

 **As always, please leave a review, and a favorite/follow if you enjoyed the story. Ja ne!**


	21. Chapter 21: Two weeks, and two years

**As you all know, I don't own shiet. Deal with it.**

 **Also, after re-reading the las chapter I posted, I decided that I will no longer be issuing lemon warnings. It breaks the flow and pace of the action, and any deviation in the warning had I continued using the model would have revealed any surprise I might have had intent on giving the readers regarding the scene. So no more Lemon warnings.**

 **With that out of the way, Enjoy! Oh, and don't forget to leave a Review, follow and/or favorite!**

"You know, I was having a pretty swell day. I helped someone shed her burden, got screwed, in the good way, by this same, insanely hot someone, then I started getting my preparations for the chunnin exams finals on the way. The day was going so well that I just had to be all friendly and shit.

'Don't mind, Hayate. I'll pick up your night watch shift. Go on home and do wwhatever it is you do when you have free time.'

And where does that leave me? In this clusterfuck of a situation I'm on right now, having just watched a secret liaison between leaf's supposed allies and a new nation, where they discussed a conspiracy to invade us during the finals of the chunnin exams. Now, please tell me, how would you act were you in my position?"

Naruto was pacing around the small, dark room he was in, the forms of Baki, the jounin-sensei of the sand team, and Temari, Kankuro and Gaara all bound and at the blonde's mercy.

Gaara couldn't even use a tiny bit of his sand as the rope he had been tied up with was, somehow, covered in supression seals, both for his regular and bijuu chakra.

The other 3 were no better off, their own chakra disabled, no tools on them, and bound completely so that no ammount of effort would allow them to move even an inch.

Kankuro was the one to speak in a hesitant tone.

"...Let us go, maybe?"

Naruto stopped and rubbed his chin even as he looked up pensively.

"No, I don't believe you meant that. You need to learn to lie better than this. I should just take you for a prolonged vacation with my positively glowing fuck buddy/potential girlfriend/satisfied costumer and her boss Ibiki in T&I..."

With the exception of Gaara, who had been completely out of it, not responding to any stimulus, the members of the Sand team started sweating profusely. While planning the invasion, they were told of Mitarashi Anko's nigh-unparalleled sadism, and Morino Ibiki's sheer ability to mindfuck nearly everyone. The man could probably make an onion cry. Or talk it into suicide.

Naruto moved towards the red-haired Jinchuuriki, who seemed to be gazing somewhere far away. Temari and Kankuro tensed at that, crazed Jinchuuriki or not Gaara was their brother, and even if he terrified them they still didn't want to see him get hurt.

Naruto kneeled in front of Gaara, calling out to him lightly.

"Gaara?"

"...Is this how you feel all the time? This pleasant silence, no voice constantly screaming in your head, telling you you're useless, calling you names, telling you to do things... To kill. Is this how it feels to be... Normal?"

"..."

Naruto looked uncharacteristically serious at that before he chopped Gaara on the forehead, knocking him unconscious.

Baki, Temari and Kankuro were absolutely terrified at that as they expected Shukaku to try to break out, but to their surprise they didn't even feel a tiny bit of the opressive, demonic chakra.

Naruto drew a tag from his pouch, placing it on Gaara's forehead before cutting his ropes loose. He took the time to roll lift Gaara's shirt up before placing a hand on his stomach, causing Gaara's seal to come visible.

"Mother- who the hell did this? This flimsy piece of shit seal couldn't hold back a damn fart, much less a sand demon! How the hell did Gaara manage not to lose his mind completely is a fucking miracle."

"W-what do you mean? Gaara always acted... Unbalanced."

It was Baki who spoke, with Naruto turning to look him in the eye as he spoke.

"Gaara wasn't all there in his actions. His seal locked the Shukaku in his mind, but it didn't protect him from it. He had to survive the mental assault of a probably millenia old Bijuu and the more devious, subtle effects of continued exposure to their potent chakra ever since he was a damn baby! The sheer fact that he didn't outright slaughter everyone that got withing 15 feet of him was a testament to his fortitude! Didn't you see? As soon as the Shukaku's influence was cut off, he calmed down. He's probably been devoting so much effort to fighting off the Shukaku that he's probably been living his life as a passenger to his own body. Add to that the fact that he cannot sleep, and you can see how his level of coherence is nothing short of an act of Kami herself."

At hearing this, the three were stunned. Gaara didn't simply enjoy the senseless slaughter, he was constantly trying to fight the murderous tendencies, trying to ward of the Shukaku's influence, and, as the people who spent the most time around him, he's always been protecting them.

Naruto went through a few Handsigns before slamming his hand on Gaara's stomach, covering his seal with another, stronger one, completely blocking off the Shukaku's consciousness and leaving the control of the autonomous defense to act on Gaara's subconscious judgement, and giving him a greater degree of conscious control over the Sand.

Removing the tag on Gaara's forehead, Naruto awakened the redhead.

Gaara, on his part, just couldn't believe what was happening. For this first time in years, ever since Yashamaru had tried to kill him, he could truly see, hear, smell, feel. There was no hazy feeling, no lightheadedness, no having to witness someone else using your body to murder innocent people.

No more voices in his head.

Looking at the blonde, Gaara could only do one thing. He bowed his head lightly, speaking in a thankful tone even as the tears rolled down his face.

"Thank you, Uzumaki."

Placing his hand on Gaara's shoulder, Naruto made the sand user look him in the face before smiling at him.

"No problem. Family helps family, and we're brothers in burden, or something like that."

Then, his tone turned serious as he faced the rest of the sand team.

"I will have to tell the Hokage of the invasion, but... I can make sure you take the least amount of heat. You'll have to confess, fully and with no reservations. After that you'll have to act as if nothing had changed. I'll make sure that after everything is dealt with, you get off easy. After all, other than Baki's acts of conspiring against the leaf, nothing else was done. Had someone died... Things would've been different. But they aren't.

After we're through with this whole clusterfuck I can take a proper look at Gaara and fix his seal more permanently. As of now, what I've done is a temporary thing that'll last about 6 months based on my estimations. Are any of you opposed to doing what I said?"

Seeing them all shake their heads, Naruto nodded even as he spoke seriously.

"You're being totally honest, good. Because had you been lying to me, I'd have to kill you."

And like that, the most terrifying -and, for Temari, secretly and shamefully arousing- night in the life of the sand team ended.

 _ **-Hokage Tower-**_

"These are very grave allegations. I must contact Rasa Immediately."

"That would literally be the stupidest move you could make right now, old man."

The clanheads were summoned to the council chambers by the Hokage for an emergency situation. After Naruto had erected privacy seals - and Danzo was honestly getting tired of the Brat's shit, his bugs and plants were giving him diddly squat - the whole sand team had been presented to the council and their situation explained. The clanheads had been chatting amongst themselves, everyone's thoughts going a mile a minute before the Hokage and Naruto's words.

Despite not being outright hostile against Naruto, and in Tsume's case actually supportive, for her own personal reasons of course, the clanheads in general still scowled at Naruto's words. Desrespecting the Hokage that way...

But before anyone could say anything, Shikaku spoke up.

"Though I would not put it the same way, I agree with the blonde. On an unrelated note, now I understand why Shikamaru is constantly complaining about troublesome blonds."

Hiruzen passed an air of calm, soothing the other clanheads as he spoke.

"Do not mind Naruto's words, he did not speak out of disrespect. He is mostly professional, but when it comes to things he believes to be stupid he reacts strongly. Like a Nara with things they consider troublesome, though less lazy, I'd say. Think nothing of it. Now, Naruto, will you tell me why talking to Rasa right now would be 'literally the stupidest move i could make right now' ?"

"Because Rasa is fully commited to the invasion. The wind Daimiyo's unwilingness to send missions their way, and our alliance's agreements were screwing them over something fierce, so they're desperate. Add to that Orochimaru whispering in his ear, and he started preparing.

Now he's wasted time, money and resources on this plan, has the backing of Orochimaru and his entire village and has the perfect opportunity to strike, during an event which will severely strain the village security, the chunnin exams finals.

What's more is the fact that they see Konoha as the complacent, treehugging pansies who got lazy in their wealth and easy living, so we're the perfect target. Trying to suddenly renegotiate deals right now so close to the main event will probably tip him off, and they'll try to readjust their plans, acting even more secretive and robbing us of the advantage of advanced information that we possess."

"Then what would you suggest we do?"

The question came not from Hiruzen, but from Hyuuga Hiashi.

"We act like the ninja we are. A little birdie told me that all the five Kage are going to be present during these finals. You could have all available shinobi brushing up both their skills and emergy protocol under the pretense of making a show of strength to the foreign dignitaries and Kage, and while their spies are worried about informing themselves about and countering the majority of our forces, namely Gennin, Chunnin and TokuJo, we give a few trusted Jounin and the ANBU an actual sitrep, have them get ready on the sly, and in the day of the invasion, before they can actually attack you spring a trap on the Kazekage, and try to convince him to make his forces stand down and aid us in cleaning up the Oto nin. After that we renegotiate terms so that they're not so strangled, with a few revised term that would benefit us more when they're actually stable, and strengthen both our alliance and our position.

After all, if we so easily stop an 'unexpected' attack from a supposed ally, completely cutting off any possible avenue of action, then what do you think any would-be enemies would think of us?"

Hiruzen turned towards Shikaku, seeing the man nod at that.

"As great a plan as any other, with the least estimated loss of life."

Looking up towards Naruto, Shikaku drawled out.

"Hey kid, wanna take my job? It's too troublesome and I'd rather be doing something else."

Naruto grinned cheekily at Shikaku even as he answered.

"Nope, sorry. The amount of paperwork isn't worth having everyone short of the Hokage and ANBU commanders be your bitches."

 _ **-A few days later, Naruto's appartment, red light district-**_

A knocking at the appartment door had Naruto, Fuu and Haku each turn away from their activities, namely Naruto's seal drawing, Haku's reading and Fuu's handsign speed drills.

Naruto went to open the door, being surprised by the kiss that he received from the person on the other side of it.

Stupified at the surprise kiss, he felt himself being pushed back by Hinata as she closed the door behind her and took off her jacket even as she complained.

"I can't believe the gall of that jackass!"

Before Naruto could say anything Hinata smushed her lips against his own again, barely allowing him to respond in kind before she pushed him further into the livingroom as she took off her sandals and grabbed the hem of her tight, black short-sleeved shirt which was straining against her high C-cup borderline D-cup chest, and lifted it over her head, revealing her pale skin and indigo bra.

Haku and Fuu could feel only a sense of lustful awkwardness at the scene they witnessed, the blue-haired Hyuuga hairess angrily venting even as she stripped, while intermitently sexually assaulting their friend and roommate/landlord.

Hinata shoved Naruto onto the couch before unbuttoning her own pants, throwing them off her legs and ending with her in only her underwear, straddling the sat Naruto who seemed to have absolutely no problems with the situation.

Fuu squeaked as Hinata started fumbling with the clasp of her bra, drawing the bluenette's attention to her.

Scowling, Hinata spoke up.

"Either join us, watch silently or fuck off."

 _ **-4 hours later-**_

A completely relaxed Hinata snuggled up against the body of Naruto in his extra-large king sized bed, a frazzled Haku and a happilly humming Fuu both under the covers with them, all four equally naked.

Haku couldn't believe what had just happened. Even the memories brought a blush to her face.

Who knew the bluenette was so daring?

And skilled? Her fingers did this thing... And that thing Naruto did with his tongue...

Changing tracks with her thoughts, lest her head start smoking, Haku spoke up.

"What happened here... what does that make us? To Naruto? To you, Hinata? To eachother?"

Giving Haku a look that said 'christ you're slow', Hinata spoke up with no hesitation.

"Harem sisters, of course! I know you want Naruto as bad as a thirsty man wants water in the desert, I know Naruto wants you just as much, and I can't say I didn't enjoy what we did with eachother, and to eachother. But, more importantly, the two of you are actually decent, friendly people. This village happens to have a shortage of such people. Naruto's come to care for you greatly, and my 'other self' befriended you, allowing me to know that you're actually great people who really care for Naruto.

Plus, I doubt the fact that you'd search for companionship anywhere else. Once you go Naruto, you don't go back."

Fuu nodded rapidly, the sentiment was echoed with every single throb of her womanhood. She was so deliciously sore, and she knew that she could never give up on this feeling again.

Haku just shrugged at that, accepting things as they were. As long as she got some of that 'Naruto time' she was pretty much fine, and having others to discuss the wonderful things she felt sounded pretty nice as well.

Seeing the consent in the eyes of both other girls, Hinata turned towards Naruto and grabbed his bare manhood, feeling it engorge almost instantly.

"Time for round two, lover boy."

Naruto could only grin unabashedly as he said.

"I love my life!"

 _ **-1 week later-**_

"I hate my life!"

"Oh come on Naruto-sama, it isn't that bad!"

"It isn't that bad? We've been after this man for a week! A whole week, and barely a sniff, a trail or anything such! And not to mention our other target!"

Ibuki rubbed her covered chin at that, telling her thoughts to her boss.

"And who is it we're looking for, and why?"

Naruto sighed heavily at that.

"Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, the Red Flame swordsman. He's said to be capable of outmatching a full squad of samurai with a single bokken. He taught my mom everything she knew about swordsmanship and she wiped the floor with the 7 swordsmen of the mist. In sheer kenjutsu, my skill can only match one. That is unnaceptable!"

"And what about the other?"

"The other man is the most powerful martial artist in the world. Fuurinji Hayato, the Invincible Superman. He's said to have never lost a fight in his entire life. If you need anyone to teach you how to fully optimize your body and to improve in Taijutsu, he's the man you want to find."

"But I don't understand, Naruto-sama. You're already plenty good at those things, aren't you? Then why go through so much effort when you're going to blitz through your competition anyway?"

"It's not just about the competition, Ibuki. Speaking in general terms, my Taijutsu is my second weakest field, after Genjutsu. Not that it's weak per se, but relatively speaking it could be much better.

On the side of swordsmanship... My mother was a legend. Being anything less than that is completely unnaceptable. I _will_ become strong enough to make her proud.

And what's the best way to improve at something other than being taught by the current best at it?"

An old, somewhat gravely voice spoke up from behind Naruto, causing the blond to freeze and a chill to crawl up his spine as neither he nor Ibuki had sensed him.

"Current best? Are you implying that you can so easily best me with a little bit of guidance? As far as I know the chunnin exams are two weeks away, tops. No amount of training could get you that good in that short amount of time."

Turning around, Naruto saw exactly one of the people he was searching for. Yamamoto was a bald old man with a massive, braided white beard, and an equally colored, thick mustache covering the lower part of his face, while his forehead sported a thin, slanted cross-shaped scar on it. He was wearing a black cloak, a loose, white shirt under it, and a pair of shorts, his feet adorned in flip-flops. His shoulders were slightly hunched forward, and he was leaning heavily on his cane, but the sheer fact that he snuck up on Naruto showed how much of a threat he was.

"Still..." the old man said as he poked and prodded at the stunned Naruto's chest and shoulders "You've got good muscles, and going toe-to-toe with one of the seven swordsmen at your age is impressive. A year or two and you'd probably be as good as Kushina was. Nowhere near as good as me, though, but that's life."

Another voice, one slightly younger-sounding and louder, though still belonging to an old man came from behind Naruto and Ibuki, again.

"Come now, Shige-chan, don't be so harsh on the boy. He is still young, and young people are supposed to overestimate their own skills. An old man like you should understand this, you were his age once after all."

Naruto turned around again, having to look up to see the face of the blond-haired, long-bearded man. Said man was over 7 feet tall, his green robe doing nothing to hide his heavily muscled form of over 220 something pounds. The man had also managed to sneak up on Naruto, putting the blonde even more on edge than before.

"Oh, come off it. Where do you get off calling me old when you're as old as dirt?"

"Oh, you're exaggerating, Shige-chan."

"No, you don't get to say that. You were already an old man when I was still toddling around soiling my diapers."

"Yet here you are, once again soiling your diapers, and I'm still young and spry!"

"I'm only 87! I'm nowhere near old enough to need diapers, and I'd commit seppuku before going back to those!"

Naruto had to break in at that.

"Excuse me but what the actual fuck is going on?"

Hayato turned towards Naruto, a large smile on his face as he rubbed his beard.

"I do believe, young Naruto, that you've just found yourself a pair of teachers."

Letting out an exasperated sigh and rubbing the bridge of his nose, Naruto spoke up.

"Y'know, let's just go with that. Why the hell does my life always have to be so weird?"

Placing his hands on Yamamoto's shoulder and Hayato's forearm, with Ibuki holding onto his own shoulder, Naruto vanished in a cloud of smoke into the Uzumaki-Namikaze compound.

The two old men and Ibuki eyed his home appreciatively, a well-manicured front yard with a clean koi-pond filled with the fish, various different patches of flowers, more than a few trees, and an impeccably trimmed grass being the results of the work of Shadow Clones.

Naruto lead them into the house, leading them through various corridors, hallways, down staircases before they felt as if they had walked down over a mile or such.

They stopped in front of a steel door with a gold ' **TC** ' on it.

Going through a few handsigns, Naruto placed his hand on the doorknob and opened it to reveal a massive, open field, a blue, cloud-dotted sky above them with a few rays of sunlight shining through and hitting them. The field itself was a vast stretch of grass, with a few trees dotting the landscape, some training posts here and there and more than just a few lakes. There were several structures on the Horizon, which upon closer observation could be seen as the laboratory and living spaces. Closing and locking the door behind him, Naruto spoke up.

"Welcome, people, to my time chamber!"

Hayato, Yamamoto and Ibuki asked at the same time.

"Time chamber?"

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _"Time chamber?"_

 _"Yes, Mashiro, a time chamber."_

 _"But how? It's... How?"_

 _Mashiro was freaking out at what Naruto had told her even as her men transferred her lab and the S-01, S-02 and HB samples into the impossibly big space._

 _I mean, really, who the hell would expect a room in a home's basement to be about as big as the village that they were currently in? It was absurd, and against every single logical mandate!_

 _But, this was Naruto, and, as always, he had to simply tell logic to go screw itself._

 _"Well, my dad was the one who really started this project. He was really into space-time jutsu, and manipulation in general, honestly I swear the man had a fetish for that, and you saw the results of that in both the Hiraishin and the work he put into the compound itself. Well, he expanded this subspace creation to the logical limit. He create a pocket dimension within a pocket dimension anchored in the real world, and then started terraforming that pocket dimension. He applied air purification seals to help with the grass and trees releasing oxygen, he installed seals the mimicked the effects of the sun, turning radiation into UV-radiation within the wavelength of the actual sun rays, fake clouds actually capable of raining once in a while, the whole nine yards._

 _Then, after unraveling many of the different known stasis seals, both for inanimate and living matter, he started trying to manipulate the flow of time inside this alternative space in relation to the real world._

 _He had limited success with it, but he never used it because of his worry over the repercussions of training in a different time. What use is training to get stronger when you come out as an old man incapable of making full use of said strength?_

 _Before he could fix any mistakes or try to improve upon the design, he and mom kicked the bucket. I picked up the slack, and the Uzumaki sealing techniques that he never had access to helped me fix many of his problems, but the advanced aging was fixed by me making the arrays themselves._

 _They were filled with my chakra, and my chakra boosts cellular regeneration. Even if you spend years in the chamber, instead of aging more rapidly you'll either reach your peak if you hadn't yet, or recover to you peak, if enough time is spent inside the chamber. That's one of the reasons I had you move S-01, S-02 and HB here. It is going to help tremendously, and the fact that I managed to make the compression ratio of 1 week for 1 year gives you 2 years worth of research and experimentation. I'll be coming here soon with my to-be sensei, and I'll be integrating whatever is ready by the time I am to leave."_

 _Mashiro tossed her cigarette away in frustration at that._

 _"WHY THE HELL DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BITCHSLAP IMPOSSIBILITY!?"_

 _"Because, dear Mashiro, nothing is impossible for me. Only improbable, and my brand of Uzumaki luck and sheer stubborness make the improbable, easy. You wouldn't expect a 14 year old to be an honest-to-god high S-rank, but here we are."_

 _Mashiro just kept grumbling about stupid blondes making things troublesome._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"So, for two years here, you'll be training for two weeks out there?"

"Yes, Hayato-sensei."

"So you're getting a year with each of us, then?"

Naruto gave them a mischievous smile as he spoke.

"The reason I said I could match you in a year is because I happen to have the best possible skillset for absurd, abridged training time possible."

As Naruto said that, he slashed his arm and made 5 blood clones, telling them to go over to Yamamoto.

"Anything not-physical you teach them, I'll learn. Reaction time, hand-eye coordination, muscle memory, kata, hell, bet the crap out of them and I gain the 'experience'. Meanwhile, I'll be working on my body with Hayato-sensei, and speed up my Taijutsu forms with more blood clones. I can learn it all at once."

Hayato and Yamamoto shared a particularly sadistic look before turning to Naruto. Yamamoto was the one to speak.

"You are going to be hurting a lot, for a long time."

Naruto gulped nervously at that even as he answered.

"I was expecting that, while hoping it wouldn't be needed."

Hayato simply laughed even as he fashioned a boulder into a pair of stone maces.

Naruto's two years would be pretty eventful.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 _ **Scene! Done with this chapter, Next one the real shit is going down!**_

 _ **As always, please leave a review, follow and/or favorite. FrancoGamerxz, ou!**_


	22. Chapter 22: Legacies revealed part 3

**Wanna warn you that I own diddly squat.**

 **Please enjoy, and leave a review and follow/favorite if you do.**

 _ **-Konoha Stadium-**_

The stadium was packed, people occupying their seats all around the massive arena. Everyone was interested in this event, as they were the Chunnin exam finals after all.

In the Kage box, something historically relevant was happening.

For the first time in god knows how long, the five Kage were together in a venue without death treats and peace treaties being the subject.

In the seat of the Mizukage sat an auburn-haired, green-eyed woman in a blue, shin-length dress with a slit on the side, hair in a herrinbone pattern with a top bun and red lipstick ( _Fuck if I'm gonna get more descriptive, we all know Mei_ ). She had forgone the traditional Kage robes, preferring for the freedom of movement of her own clothes.

Next to Mei sat Ay, the fourth Raikage. He was a tall, muscular dark-skinned man, with blonde, slicked back hair, a goatee and mustache in the same colour, his upper body bare with the exception of his Kage robes and wrist... somethings, honestly no one knew why he wears them, a boar faced belt and pants, with the standard Kumo sandals on his feet.

After Ay was Onoki, a short, old man with a large, bulbous nose, a goatee and manchu combo in white adorning his face, his white hair mostly gone around the middle of the head, present only around the head over the ears and the back of his head in a top knot. He was wearing a set of red-trimmed green robes and green sandals. He was sat on the seat of the Tsuchikage.

After Onoki was Hiruzen, bedecked in the full Kage robes which hid the black combat suit he wore underneath.

After Hiruzen sat a man in the Kazekage robes, his face covered by the veil and his voice muffled by the same thing.

Hiruzen was the one to speak first.

"Once again, welcome to Konoha, fellow Kage. Onoki, Rasa, Ay, we've already met before. And welcome, miss Mizukage. The presence of the first female Kage in the first 5 Kage reunion in a long while is a very momentous occasion."

Mei nodded her head lightly, showing respect but not deference before responding.

"I am very thankful for the opportunity to have taken the seat of Mizukage."

Onoki spoke up at that.

"I hadn't been made aware of an inauguration of a new Mizukage. Last I heard, your country was in civil war. The previous Mizukage had started implementing mass genocide, correct?"

Not falling for the bait, Mei responded calmly and evenly.

"Indeed. I and a few others organized a rebellion, and through the help of a third party we managed to win the war. We've taken the 6 months from then to re-organize our country, and now I feel confident enough in my country's strength to be able to leave temporarily to attend the exams."

The thought of a third party capable of flipping the tide of a war was filed away by all others present at the kage box, before Mei continued speaking.

"Having said that, aren't two contestants missing? Two leaf nin, one Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto I believe?"

"Indeed" Sarutobi said while steepling his fingers together. After all the work he put into ANBU and all the services rendered to the village, Naruto wouldn't jeopardise his chance of promotion like that.

Down in the arena, Gekko Hayate acting as the proctor ordered everybody except for Hyuuga Hinata to leave the arena grounds, as it was time for their fight.

A few minutes passed and still no Naruto, so Genma, despite not liking it at all in the case, had to follow the rules.

"Uzumaki Naruto has 10 seconds to make himself present. If by the end of a 10 count he's not present, then his match shall be considered forfeit, and Hyuuga Hinata shall be allowed to pass directly."

"10."

Up in the contestant gallery, everyone was looking down at the arena just waiting for the blond.

"9."

In the stands, Sakura, Ino, Tenten and all of the other Konoha Genin that had been eliminated were also waiting on Naruto.

"8."

Among the jounin, Anko, Kurenai, Hana and Tsume specifically, but everyone who was either neutral to or liked the blonde in general were worried.

"7."

Hiruzen tightened his locked fingers, his mind calling for Naruto's presence, while Mei seemed to be bothered by the situation as well.

"Si-"

Hayate was interrupted by the dull ***Thunk!*** of something falling on the arena ground, across from Hinata.

The reflected glare meant the object was metallic, but it was the same glare that had people covering their eyes and not seeing what it was. When people took a closer look, everyone above a certain age, shinobi and civillian alike, had their jaws dragging on the floor.

The Jounin were stupefied for the most part, while Tsume was just smirking knowingly.

In the Kage box the results were no different. Onoki seemed to panic for an instant, before he took a deep breath and relaxed.

Ay's eyes were open wide, even a shit-eating grin stretched his lips open.

Mei eye the object speculatively, a small smirk of her own at who she knew was coming.

Hiruzen could only beam proudly at that.

While the man in the Kazekage robes starget radiating slight hatred, and shifted uncomfortably.

The object that had sunk partway into the arena floor was a Tri-prong Kunai with a longer handle. Said handle was wrapped in blue cloth, with a tag bearing a seal formula wrapped around it in yellow.

For a second the whole arena held still, the tension mounting, expectations building up at the sight of the object. The next second, a red flash satisfied all of the expectations.

A figure was deposited over the Kunai. They were wearing a red, sleeveless Karate gi with a black Obi tying it close, loose, black Kung-fu pants, with the amount of pockets one would expect from the standard ANBU cargo pants, a pair of black, closed, shin-high boots, and a white, ankle-length cloak, the sleeves torn off, a set of red Uzumaki Swirls linked together in the shape of turbulent waves adorning the hem of the cloak, and orange lettenring on the back, the large and visible Kanji spelling it out for all to see.

' **LEGACY** '

This same figure had a wider figure, having visible, hard muscles, wide shoulders, thick, strong arms and legs, and pecs, abs, and back so hard you could sharpen blades on them. This same figure had a pair of mischievous, cerulean blue eyes, a handsome, chiseled face and jaw, a ruggedly handsome nose, three pronounced whisker marks on each cheek and long, free blond hair in waist-long spikes, two equaly spiky bangs framing his face.

This figure was Uzumaki Naruto.

( _ **AN: Picture him with the physique of Ultimate Gohan in his fight against super Buu, with Madara's hair, but blond and spikier.**_ )

The silence in the arena was deafening, until...

"Go for it, you blonde Adonis! I bet all my life savings on you!"

Anko broke it.

As soon as people recovered from the stunning sequence of shocks, the figure of Naruto, his method of arrival, his appearance and his atire started tipping off even the stupidest individuals of his parentage.

Meanwhile, Mei was basically salivating from her seat in the Kage booth, causing the other Kages to lean away from her.

All around the stadium, various women had just discovered a newfound appreciation for blondes in tight clothing, and more than a few of them were sporting hearts in their eyes while declaring their undying love and asking to be married to.

Naruto, ever the mischievous, troublesome blonde he was, turned to look at a section of the audience and winked, causing many a girl to swoon, and the level of shrieking to go through the roof.

Turning back towards Hinata, Naruto was honestly a bit scared at the hungry look in her eyes.

"Just when I though my Naru couldn't get any manlier, you go and prove me wrong... That's it, as soon as we're done here you're taking me to someplace private and you're going to make me bowlegged, you hear me?"

The sound amplification seals in the arena made everyone listen to that declaration, causing many a blush, while Naruto could only chuckle sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.

"Sorry Hina-Hime, but today is an all-work no-fun day."

Hinata spoke while assuming her fighting stance, parting her feet at shoulder width , the left one slightly in front of the right one, left hand with the palm out and pointed at Naruto at stomach-level, right hand with the palm up and coiled next to her waist.

"Tch, fine. But in exchange, tomorrow we won't be leaving the bed except for nourishment and bathroom needs. And Haku and Fuu _Will_ be there with us. That's final."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Naruto nodded his readiness to Hayate even as he spoke.

"Promise?"

As soon as Hayate gave signaled the start of the match Hinata turned into a blur, having dashed towards Naruto at High-jounin speeds, further stunning those who saw and heard of her display during the chunnin exams, and causing Hiashi to wince lightly.

He had been blind to Hinata's sheer talent, and now he had the best possible heiress, with the determination to live a life of being looked down upon in order to defend what she considers important, and the strength to retaliate against slights upon her and hers, hating the clan in it's majority.

He had sacrificed his relationship with his daughter to create a proper heiress, at first hoping that the continued abuse would cause Hinata's frustrations and anger to build to the point where she fought back at full strength, leaving her kindness aside, and when that seemingly failed and he focused on Hanabi, as an example of everything not to be.

He had done all of that only to have the fact that his actions lead him nowhere rubbed against his face in the most public venue possible. The daughter he hailed a failure had completely outclassed the nephew he hailed a genius, and an example for all the hyuuga children to follow. His actions meant that the Hyuuga Heiress was completely against hyuuga traditions, and out of the control of the clan, which would get the panties of the elders in a bunch.

And Hanabi? The girl who always looked down upon her older sister as weak because of his words would potentially completely disregard anything he said from then on, as one of her constants - The Hyuuga are the best, the main branch is better than the cadet branch, and Hinata will always be weak - had just been shattered. If one of them was fake, what else could he be misleading the girl on?

And Hiashi could do nothing but watch as his daugh- Hinata showed every single one of the people who had always demeaned her how stupid they were.

Down in the arena the battle continued. Hinata had ramped up the speed, using chakra-empowered palm strikes and thrusts not dissimilar to those of the Jyuuken, though the crackling of electricity could easily be noticed in her attacks, making her a blur to even most Jounin in attendance, only the elite jounin and the ones specifically suited to high-speed combat could see a thing.

And yet, Naruto kept dodging every single hit without even uncrossing his arms, simply shifting his legs, tilting his head, leaning his torso back or forth a bit, and so on and so forth.

Hinata pushed forward, aiming a palm strike at Naruto's stomach which he had to jump backwards to avoid, before he felt himself be hit hard, his body speeding off and slamming into one of the arena walls.

" **Hakke Kusho. (8 Tigrams Vacuum Palm)** "

A cloud of dust obscured the Uzumaki, causing Hinata to activate her Byakugan. Seeing the blonde, she adopted a pose well known by some before dashing in and starting a series of consecutive finger strikes.

"2 Palms! 4 Palms!"

Hiashi could only goggle disbelievingly at the technique used, one of the main branche's strongest attacks.

"8 Palms! 16 Palms! 32 Palms! 64 Palms!"

His disbelief increased further at that, watching as she kept gradually speeding up, the number of closed tenketsu on the boy increasing.

"128 Palms! 8 Tigrams, 361 Palms!"

After striking Naruto hard in the gut Hinata jumped back, breathing heavily at the amount of effort she put into the technique. Naruto's chakra even while in a relaxed state was so dense she had to put about 2 to 3 times the regular amount of chakra to close his tenketsu than she put in to shatter a normal person's, add to that the physical exertion and the light burn in her arms was justified.

Hayate walked towards the downed form of Naruto, intent on checking on him, but before he could do a thing the blond simply hopped up to his feet, cracking his neck as if nothing had happened.

Hanabi, Neji, Hiashi and every other Hyuuga in the audience activated their Byakugan in order to see the state of the blonde's tenketsu, knowing that Hinata had successfully performed the technique and that he should be down for a long while, a week at least.

Bad move.

Hinata was expecting what happened, so se deactivate her Byakugan and closed her eyes, so she didn't have to experience the sudden experience of watching Naruto forcibly flare his chakra in order to unlock his tenketsu.

The others though, they felt it alright. The flare had been visibly stunnin to the naked eye, so the ocular pain they were feeling was nigh undescribable.

Hanabi, looking to the blurry figure that was in her father's seat, spoke.

"What was that? How can someone's chakra be so... Immense?"

Hiashi had no way to answer Hanabi's question. He couldn't even chalk it up to the fox, his byakugan had clearly seen that only his regular, blue chakra flared.

After unlocking his tenketsu, Naruto rolled his shoulders, crouched and stretched his legs before grabbing a Hiraishin kunai from his pocket.

Hinata activated her Byakugan again, returning to her stance. Naruto breathed in, doing no handsigns before silently firing out a ' _ **Water Style: Water trumpet!**_ ', forcing Hinata to start rapidly rotating and releasing a great amount of chakra, creating a brilliant blue dome around her.

' _ **Hakkesho Kaiten! (8 Tigrams palm rotation!)**_ '

The water flew around the dome, and as the water stopped so did Hinata only to see a Hiraishin Kunai flying into her Byakugan's radius, as soon as the Hiraishin Kunai reached her blind spot she spun around her own axis, tossing out a palm strike at where she anticipated her boyfriend would appear only for a steel blade to press agains her chest even as an arm was wrapped around her waist.

Naruto leaned into his girlfriend's ear, speaking in a low enough tone for the sound seals around the arena no to affect them.

" _You forgot that your blind spot moves with you, love. You anticipated me attacking your blind spot at that moment, while I was anticipating where it would be next. I didn't need to waste chakra with a hiraishin when the Shunshin gets me there as easily. Remeber to always take the blind spot in consideration._ "

As soon as he finished his assessment, Hinata resignedly raised her hand up and spoke.

"I forfeit."

Hayate spoke up at that.

"Winner *cough*, Uzumaki Naru-..."

"Actually" started the blonde "It's Uzumaki- _Namikaze_ Naruto. Make sure to adress me by my full name from now on, Hayate!"

Clearing his throat, Hayate started again.

"Winner, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto."

At that declaration, the entire arena went wild.

 _ **-Kage box-**_

Ay spoke in an excited tone at that.

"Hokage-dono, is that young man the Yellow Flash's son?"

Seeing no reason to deny it when Naruto had decided to announce it to the whole world, he nodded.

"Indeed. Young Naruto is Minato's son with Uzumaki Kushina, the red death of Konoha."

"And he'll be stronger than both had been, together."

The five Kage turned around to the new voice, surprised that their security hadn't stopped, or at least announced the man to the kage.

The man was visibly old, with hunched shoulders, a slanted, X-shaped scar on his bald head, a short-sleeve hawaiian shirt and shorts on his body alongisde a pair of flip flops, while his face was adorned with a tidily braided, waist-long beard with a thick, well-kept moustache that automatically gained the envy of both Ay and Onoki, and a walking stick was on his hands.

'The Kazekage' was the one to speak up.

"And who would you happen to be, old man?"

The man seemed to be unfazed with the menacing tone used, simply shaking his head in disappointment as he sighed, before speaking in his gravely tone.

"You young folk really have no respect for your elders anymore, do you?"

Onoki eyed the old man speculatively, asking himself where he had seen him befo-...

"AH!"

The other four kage turned to look at the Tsuchikage, a trembling finger pointing at the old man, a look of recognition and clarity crossing his face.

"You're- AH! MY BACK!"

Everyone sweatdropped at that, before Hiruzen tried again.

"Excuse me sir, but who would you happen to be?"

The old man banged his cane on the floor once, causing the wooden cover to unravel and reveal a sheathed Katana. Before any of the Kage could react to the perceived agression, he started speaking.

"I am a man that was already cutting down fiends while the lot of you were hanging off your mother's waists. I am Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, The Red Flame Swordsman, teacher of the red death of Konoha, and now, teacher of her son as well."

The moment he said his name, everyone in the booth automatically understood why he so easily and informally spoke to them that way.

Non-missing nin S-ranked individuals tend to try to have village-specific connections, even if just a ruse, in order to secure safety and protection from Bingo Book placement and bounty hunters chasing after them. Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai was a man who did not have to worry about that.

He was the pinnacle of swordsmanship in the history of the elemental countries, having bichslapped Mifune of steel country in a swordsmanship bout using only a wooden spoon. Any attempts at coercing him to join a village ended with many dead nin, and his page in the Bingo Book was skipped as a norm for bounty hunters, as hundreds had fallen to the man. At the same time. Eventually people stopped bothering including his name in the bingo book altogether, lest their hunter nin corps be obliterated trying to hunt a monster.

Hiruzen spoke up at that.

"So, Shigekuni-sama, do you intend to train Naruto to his mother's level?"

Yamamoto smirked visibly at that, mischief emmanating from him as he spoke.

"I already have."

"WHAT! But you could've had 2 weeks at most to have trained him! I know because for the first two he had been doing village-related activities!"

"Well" Yamamoto spoke airily, the mischief still freely oozing from him "Was it truly two weeks only? My, time really seemed to stretch on during pracite with the boy. I could swear it had been 2 years instead of two weeks!"

As he finished saying that, he turned around to look at the competitor's box, watching his student interacting with his peers. Well... His generation. He truly had no peers amongst his own age, the boy was a whole different being. He belonged in the level of S-rank monsters such as himself. The things he saw during time compression... He knew Naruto would change things in an interesting manner in the world, he just knew.

Looking between eachother, the five Kage decided to simply shrug off the enigmatic old man's final comments, while the fact that he considered the Uzumaki boy as skilled with a sword as his mother at his age was terrifying.

Orochimaru started sweating under the Kazekage's robes. The presence of the monster old man, and the fact that the Kyuubi brat had access to Minato's technique and swordsmanship at his mother's level would seriously hamper his plans, probably make them fail altogether. But, if he were not to destroy the village, he would at least kill the third.

That, was a promise.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Chapter 22 done! Tell me whether you enjoyed it or not in the reviews. Also, do follow and favorite my story, as it helps spread it around the website and make it more popular!**

 **FrancoGamerxz out!**


	23. Chapter 23: Finality of the Finals

**Disclaimer: What you already know.**

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 **Let's go!**

 _ **-Chunnin Exams stadium-**_

"Due to certain extenuating circumstances, the match between Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara has been pushed back to the last slot. We shall be proceeding with the match between Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Kankuro, followed by an intermission."

The voice of Hayate reached all of the Stadium, letting everyone know what the Hokage had decreed.

Kankuro quickly raised his hand, acting as if he were still following the plan. Well, he was following _a_ plan, but not exactly the one the Kazekage expected him to. But he didn't know that.

"Proctor, I forfeit!"

Shino turned towards Kankuro, narrowing his eyes though no one would know behind his glasses. Kankuro felt the bug user's gaze, sweating nervously until Naruto placed his hand on Shino's shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Come on, Shino! He's just a coward, let him be!"

Shino nodded, seemingly agreeing with the assessment causing Kankuro to sweatdrop at that, his pride stung that that one excuse worked so easily. Before anyone else could say anything, an ANBU appeared in the contestants booth.

"Uzumaki-san, your presence was requested in the Kage box."

Naruto nodded, excusing himself before following the ANBU up the set of stairs.

He entered the restricted area, bowing his head in respect to the reunited shinobi.

"Mizukage-dono, Raikage-dono, Tsuchikage-dono, Hokage-sama, Kazekage-dono, Yamamoto-Sensei. To what do I owe these summons?"

Mei was the first to act, surprising almost everyone in the Kage box by bodily throwing herself towards Naruto, rubbing his whisker marks and forcing the blonde to fight down the purr of pleasure that had started rising up his throat.

The Hokage cleared his throat, getting the attention of both.

"Mizukage-dono, I summarize that you and Naruto here have history?"

Mei responded in an unconcerned tone.

"You could say that, Hokage-dono. Naruto did me a very big favor by directing Momochi Zabuza back to me after the debacle in Wave. Zabuza was an invaluable part in the victory against the loyalist regime."

"That would not explain the reason why you so easily attached yourself to one of my shinobi, nor the reason why he allowed you to."

"Oh, that?" Mei asked while waving dismissively "I just found him incredibly attractive, so..."

Naruto was the one to speak up after that.

"Likewise. Beautiful woman becomes physically affectionate with me? I have no reason to complain or change the situation."

Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke.

"And what if she had been an enemy nin? An assassin?"

"Then I'd enjoy the attention until she tried to kill me, then I'd kill her back. Simple really."

Onoki spoke up next.

"I believe we are missing the point. THE BOY KNOWS THE HIRAISHIN! His participation in the chunin exams is completely unfair to all other contestants!"

"No, it is not. Known jutsu and possessed skills do not limit your participation in the chunin exams, your rank does. I was a genin, so I'm participating in the chunin exams. That isn't your actual problem, is it Tsuchikage-dono? Your problem is a different one, my father."

"That technique slaughtered many an Iwa-nin!"

"As did your particle style many from other villages. It was war, after all. S-ranks are in the habit of devastating whole batallions, and that is the reality of war. Why is it different with my father? Is it because it was your nin who were being slaughtered? Not, mhm... Uzushio Shinobi, for example?"

Everyone turned more serious at those words, understanding what Naruto was aluding to.

Onoki could only seethe at that, but Naruto continued.

"You are talking and acting based on the actions of a man who's been dead for 14 years, towards the son who never even met him, because of events that ocurred before I was even born. Let's simply let bygones be bygones. Sins of the father, and all that."

An awkward silence ensued, with Onoki still silently seething, while Naruto kept cool and collected as if he was not at all in danger. All the while Mei kept rubbing his whiskers.

Well, he really wasn't in danger. Onoki was only one, and even if he couldn't take him solo he doubted the Sandaime, Mei and Yamamoto would let him get kil-... Wait Yamamoto just might have.

Bastard old man.

Ay, not caring a whiff about Onoki's beef with Minato's kid, adressed Naruto directly.

"How handy are you with the Hiraishin, kid?"

"Pretty handy, why?"

"Because ever since your dad died I've not had someone capable of matching my speed. I wanna see if you can give me a good challenge, if even for a bit, before I have you biting my dust."

Naruto grinned a prankster's grin at the Raikage, plans percolating through his head. Hiruzen was automatically put on guard by that, knowing that nothing good would come out of it, as was Yamamoto.

"Willing to bet on it?"

"Depends kid, what are the stakes?"

"Let's play a game of tag. You win, I give you some Uzumaki-made seals to bolster your Village's defenses. I win, you give me unlimited access to all general shinobi access areas, meaning anything Genin, Chunin and TokuJo can get, I get. What do you say?"

Naruto stretched out his hand, the devious grin on his face putting even the ever confident Ay on edge. For about a second. After that second, his stubborn pride reared it's ugly head and he shook Naruto's hand.

"Deal!"

The cackle that Naruto let out put even the disguised Orochimaru on edge, but Ay had already shook on it, in the presence of the other Kage no less, so there was no going back.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy learning your raiton library!"

Soon the intermission was over, and Naruto made his way out of the Kage box, bumping into Hiruzen on the way out and apologizing lightly before making his way back to the contestant's observation deck.

Hayate cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the audience before calling out.

"Sabaku no Temari and Nara Shikamaru, please step down to the arena."

Temari blew Naruto a kiss while smirking, before jumping down the balcony and gliding to the ground on top of her fan. Shikamaru had started raising his hand to forfeit until a hand clamped down on each of his shoulders. One was Naruto's, and the other Shino's, and right now he honestly did not know who he feared more.

To his surprise, without any preamble or care, the two tallest boys in their generation simply pushed him over the railing, forcing Shikamaru to improvise a landing strategy. He quickly wrapped some ninja wire around the handle of a Kunai before throwing it at the highest treebranch of the closest tree, turning his fall into a downards arch before landing in a roll.

Standing up straight, Shikamaru stretched even as he muttered something about troublesome friends, and even more troublesome blonds, before meeting Temari's gaze.

"Can't believe I have to fight a girl. Troublesome."

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?"

Temari's angry outburst expressed the feelings of many of the present kunoichi in the room, their malice focused collectively on Shikamaru. The lazy genius didn't bat an eyelash as he kept speaking.

"This is the kind of thing I mean. If I fight a girl with no hesitation, I'm ungentlemanly and mysoginistic, if I hesitate I'm a sexist chauvinistic pig. If I win against a girl, my victory is undervalued, If i lose against a girl, my defeat is exacerbated. No matter how deserving I am of either. This is why it's troublesome. If I fought a guy I wouldn't have to worry about all these things."

Temari actually took a moment to analyze what Shikamaru said, and she had to agree with the lazy ass. He didn't say it was troblesome to fight her because he's a bastard, he just said it because he overthinks things. She had to tell him as much.

"As shinobi, this kind of man/female bullshit doesn't matter since a woman is as capable of jabbing a Kunai into your jugular as a man. Anyone who tells you that it matters is either an asshole, deluded or trying to get you killed. Just come at me with your all and forget everything else."

"I guess you're right. You troublesome blondes tend to have an answer for everything. Maybe if I dye my hair I'd find out how to not have to do any work."

Temari smirked as she answered.

"Sorry but I don't think you're hot enough to rock the blonde look."

Naruto, Ino and Hinata's matching shouts of "DAMN STRAIGHT!" were heard by all in the arena, causing massive sweatdrops.

In the Kage box, Ay had had the same thought, though he controlled his outburst.

Hayate, having given them enough time to banter, lowered his hand.

"Begin!"

Temari started out strong, opening her fan straight to two moons instead of one and sending cutting winds against Shikamaru. Shikamaru saw the compressed blades of wind, rolling out of the way of the blades and getting a light gash on his thigh for his efforts, before hiding behind a group of trees.

' _I should have adequate defense here, at least for a while, while I think of something._ '

Shikamaru crouched, joining his hands together in his thinking pose, his eyes closed as he started making and discarding plans. A plan crafted, Shikamaru stood back up and removed something from his back pouch.

The lazy Nara unexpectedly rushed Temari who retaliated with a concussive blast of wind, though Shikamaru had prepared for the eventuality behind the trees, having put Kunai in the tight space between his feet and his sandals and stabbing them into the ground to steady himself.

He tossed the round pellet towards Temari who blocked with her fan, surprising her when a curtain of smoke covered her. She waved her fan once again, dispelling the cloud before automatically blocking the thrown Kunai and Shuriken, causing them to fall on the ground around her.

Shikamaru kneeled down at that, holding a Rat handsign as his shadow shot forward, surprising Temari as it started connecting to and drifting through the shadows of the fallen items, forcing her to keep hopping backwards, dodging Shikamaru's shadow until it stopped stretching, presumably having reached it's limit. Just to be safe on it, hopped back twice more, before digging a line on the ground with her fan.

' _This is his range limit, so I can simply stay here and keep bombarding him with wind Jutsu._ '

Opening the third moon on her fan, Temari started throwing around stronger and more powerful winds at Shikamaru, forcing him to keep changing cover, trees getting cut down and demolished by the sharp or crushing winds, until Temari eventually stopped, tired of constantl swinging her fan around and the chakra drai, while Shikamaru hid behind another tree, his thinking pose back.

Seeing a large cloud drifting closer to the sun, Shikamaru had a flash of inspiration.

Temari was surprised when Shikamaru once again ran straight at her, once again automatically deflecting his projectiles. She was surprised, however, when he tossed something above him, not knowing what it was until the flashbomb detonated behind him.

Knowing that it had been coming, Shikamaru had put on ear plugs and clenched his eyes, and in an instant he opened his eyes, placing his hands on a rat sign again and having the shadow traversing the different tools. This time, however, Temari was surprised to see the shadow vanish into the shadows of the fallen trees as well, darting in and out of her view. She didn't know where the shadow would come from, but she wouldn't give Shikamaru any time to beat her.

She cocked the fully open fan back...

Only to feel herself freeze in place.

"Damn, that was a hard one."

Her eyes moved to the lazy genius questioningly.

"How? I am sure that there was no shadow for you to attack me with!"

Shikamaru sighed at that.

"Troublesome blonde. Remember my landing with the Kunai and wire? You cut down the tree sporting them. I used the flashbang to confuse you and give me time to send out my shadow without interruption, and while you thought that I was trying to find a shadow close enough to trap you, I was actually waiting for the sun to position itself properly. Once the light hit the kunai and wire at an angle, it gave me a discreet, long shadow that you wouldn't have paid attention to. The shadow of the wire connected to the shadow of your fan, and that's why you're trapped right now.

Now..."

Shikamaru raised his hand, forcing Temari to raise her own as well. She gulped and squeezed her eyes shut, expecting pain of some sort...

"Proctor, I quit. I'm almost out of chakra, and all out of fucks to give. Imma go take a nap. See ya."

Without waiting for the proctor's response, Shikamaru released Temari from his shadow and made his way back up the contestants gallery.

"Winner *cough* Sabaku no Temari... I guess."

' _That lazy bastard got me good... I need to get better._ '

 _ **-Kage box-**_

"Impressive showing of the boy, makes good on the Nara reputation." Were Mei's words as she watched Shikamaru be greeted by a grinning Naruto and stoic Shino in the distance, Temari herself going up the stairs in a haze of confusion and self-recrimination. She had officially won, but her pride had told her she lost, and Mei could understand that.

"Definitely chunin material, in my opinion." came from Ay "I'm personally a more active fighter, but even a 'spur of the moment' person like me can the the sheer intellect behind each of the kid's plans. I give him a yes for the vest."

The other Kage all agreed, before Hiruzen spoke up again.

"And... What about Naruto and Hinata? What are your thoughts on them being promoted?"

Mei spoke up.

"I believe that both being promoted is a given. They both gave an impressive showing of a level way beyond the one expected of the tournament. Both of them were very good fighters, comfortable with their techniques and fighting styles, confident in their strengths and seemingly knowledgeable in their weaknesses, for the most part, as all actions they took made sure not to show them. That isn't something involuntary, you only do that to cover up the weaknesses you know you have, so that the enemy doesn't.

The Hinata girl, she knows her specialty and did her utmost to keep the fight at her preferred range for the most part. She showed her great skills in that range with both the vicious strikes and the Jyuuken techniques, and that long range wind technique was a good surprise. Many would have either been unable to get up, or extensively damaged by it.

The only reason she lost is because her oponent was Naruto. Her attacks would have downed any of the other contestants, and if they struck even someone like us, in a moment of unattentiveness, it would spell trouble. After all, even a genin can kill a Kage, no?

And Naruto... He is good. Absurdly so. He controlled to flow of the battle in it's entirety, the only reason he gave Hinata the initiative was probably so she could showcase her skills and be considered for a promotion. When he created separation was after he decided we had seen enough from her, probably, and struck.

That sealless, sub-vocalized water jutsu with no actual water source was impressive, but not as impressive as his last move. Since he arrived in a Hiraishin, everyone presumed that the moment he whipped out one of Hiraishin kunai, he'd teleport. He banked on everyone's anticipation of that, and closed the range with a shunshin instead, surprising Hinata. Had it been an enemy, they would have been dead. So far, what we know of him is that he's a very capable swordsman, can use the Hiraishin, can use water jutsu with no trouble, is fast, is handy with a Shunshin and is good at reading and manipulating people's actions. He could have probably ended the match in various other different ways, be it overwhelming strength, or simply turning it into a war of attrition.

The Uzumaki were known for their endurance, and his build surely suggests he's pushed his Natural endurance tho it's limits, to the point of shrugging off 361 jyuuken strikes. Hinata, on the other hand, put all she had in from the start, and you could notice the soreness and burning of the muscles on her arms and thighs. Naruto could have beaten her without using a single jutsu, just by outlasting her."

Yamamoto nodded at that in-depth assessment, before Hiruzen spoke up.

"All in favor of promoting Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata?"

All the Kage raised their hands, even if Orochimaru wanted to shoot down the blonde brat's promotion just out of pettiness and spite. Yet, still, he had a role to play, and he'd do it properly.

 _ **-Arena Grounds-**_

"Nii Yugito vs Fuu. Both contestants, please come down to the arena."

The two girls stepped down, standing across eachother and locking their gazes on one another's.

" _ **Kit**_ " Matatabi spoke in Yugito's head " _ **You'll most probably have to take this fight seriously. I advise you to fight all out from the beginning, though you should not use my chakra at all. Use only your own skills. Revealing your secret weapon in such a public venue is suicide.**_ "

" _I know that, it's why I can't understand why Naruto revealed the Hiraishin here._ "

" _ **I believe it was just a statement. Revealing his heritage with a bang, and all that. Still, he's smart enough to know not to reveal all of his tricks. I wouldn't be surprised if he had something even more dangerous than the Hiraishin up his sleeve.**_ "

" _That sounds... Amazing, and yet terrifying at the same time._ "

" _ **Just like Naruto, no?**_ "

" _Yes, jus- wait no! Matatabi!_ "

Inside her own mind, Fuu had been having a similar conversation.

" _So I'd best stick to my own skills, Chomei?_ "

" _ **Yes, it would be advised, pupa. My chakra is a last resort. Remember, your body still cannot fully utilize it without damage. We don't want everyone in the world to learn of that. Stick to your guns and fight with tenacity, that's all I can advise you to do.**_ "

Fuu nodded internally, before meeting Yugito's gaze. Both girls nodded in understanding, No Bijuu, no Chakra cloaks, no funny stuff.

"Contestants ready? Fight!"

As soon as Hayate gave the Okay, Yugito jumped Fuu attempting to do the same thing she did to Ino and Sakura in the prelims. Using her steel senbon as claws, she tried to poison Fuu with a paralyzing poison, but Fuu was skillfully dodging her swift swipes. The mint-haired girl Hopped backwards, and as Yugito was advancing towards her, Fuu spat out a thick, somewhat goopy spider web which Yugito tried slashing through, only for her Senbon to be stuck.

Abandoning the weapons on the web, she replaced them with another set of needles and adopted a cat-like stance, crouching with her head looking straight ahead, looking for an opportunity to pounce.

Fuu, on the other hand, had her hand on the ground. She had been shaping thin threads of her chakra into a large web connected to her awareness, any vibrations or movements on the web would help her anticipate attacks and enemy movements. She mantained this very light flow of chakra before going through a slew of handsings, breathing in deeply and then releasing the same soporific powder she used in the prelims. Yugito moved out of the way with cat-like agility and feline grace, landing on another segment of Fuu's web and alerting the girl of Yugito's own location.

Fuu turned towards Yugito's current spot, this time breathing out a cloud of catnip which attracted Yugito's attention for a few seconds before the girl flared her chakra, dispersing the dust.

In that instant Fuu used her dazzling, bright powder, spitting it towards Yugito.

Yugito, unable to dodge, instinctively spat out a fireball, a regular one thankfully, but that was the wrong thing to do. The instant the flame touched the sparkling powder, a large flash went off, dazing Yugito, though Fuu was prepared for it.

Using that instant, Fuu fed as much chakra as she could into the web, thickening it to extreme levels before yanking it upwards. Yugito noticed too late, and was trapped in a net-like web, her limbs bound far and away from eachother, and even her throat was wrapped.

"Victory, Fuu." Was Hayate's announcement, causing Fuu to release Yugito. The two girls walked towards eachother, bowing respectfully for their oponents before shaking eachother's hand and making their way back to the contestant's booth.

The next battle was between "Samui and Haku", but it was nothing special.

Samui had won because she knew the skillset and behaviours of her teammates. She had no such advantage with Haku, and Haku wasn't in the mood to take things slow. She instantly started out with the ' **Makyo Hyoshou** _ **[?]**_ **(Demonic Ice Mirrors)** ', before the various Haku threw poisoned senbon all over Samui, paralyzing her and securing a victory for herself.

"Now, Sabaku no Gaara vs Uchiha Sasuke."

The crowd started heating up at that. The son of the Kazekage, vs the golden boy of Konoha, it was the matchup they had come for, though the other fights had been surprisingly exciting.

Gaara was deposited in the arena by a sand Shunshin, while the opposing side was empty. Before anyone had the chance to say a thing, Sasuke showed up, alone, in a swirl of leaves. He sported an irritated look, though it was not directed at his oponent, but at his teacher.

Said teacher was now amongst the other Jounin, orangee book in hand, acting as if he had been there all along.

"Kakashi, what the shit?"

' _Crap, that plan failed. Ah, well._ '

"What do you mean, 'what the shit' ?"

"I mean what the hell did you get hit in the head with to think that arriving late to the chunnin exams was a good fucking idea. Christ, how much smut did you have to read for your brains to rot like that?"

Kakashi bristled lightly at that, not that any of them noticed it, before answering.

"This time I was almost on time. We were only a few minutes late, we reached the Arena when the announcement of Sasuke's match being postponned was made. We kept out of sight in order for Sasuke to scope out the competition, so that he knows what his oponents are capable of in the next round."

What nobody told him, yet they were all thinking was ' _That is presuming he makes it to the next round._ '

Gaara and Sasuke met eachother's gaze, and while Sasuke saw a thirst for battle in Gaara's eyes, it wasn't tinted with the previous insanity and murderous intent.

"Fight!"

' _Well, that's a thought for another time._ '

Putting those thoughts aside, Sasuke went through handsigns before breathing a large fireball at Gaara, the sand making a wall in front of him, parts of which turned into glass under the heat. The remaining sand ground the glass back into grains, making Gaara's attacks that more dangerous than before.

Sasuke decided to assess the speed of Gaara's sand, activating his sharingan before dashing at Gaara, running around and throwing punches and kicks at Lee's speed without his weights, despite the fact that nobody had seen him in that state yet.

All of his attacks were handily blocked by the sand, and Sasuke believed he noticed the limit of the Sand's speed.

Under that assumption, he jumped back, somersaulting backwards again and again until he was up the chunnin exam arena wall.

Going through three handsigns, Sasuke gripped his left wrist with his right hand as a ball of lightning manifested, sparkling crackles spreading occasionally as the sound of chirping birds filled the arena.

Everyone watched as Sasuke slammed his hand onto the arena wall before dragging the technique towards the redhead, but to his suprise the sand got in the way in time.

It made little difference at first, since his lightning-encased fist simply pierced through the automatic sand defense and was poised to hit Gaara flush on the shoulder, but a tiny bit of sand shifting under his feet and Sasuke's jutsu did nothing more than cut and somewhat singe some of the skin on Gaara's arm.

Orochimaru, seeing the Injury on Gaara and expecting the boy to go berserk at any moment, signaled one of his Oto jounin. He had drafted Kabuto for genjutsu work, but the grey-haired nin had disappeared. It wasn't surprising, spy work occasionally sent him to ground, so Orochimaru wasn't exactly worried.

Hundreds of feathers started falling from the sky, causing the civillians to fall asleep. All of the Konoha shinobi on the stands cancelled the genjutsu, finding themselves surrounded by Sand and Sound nin.

 _ **-Kage Box-**_

As soon as the signal was given, Orochimaru jumped his sensei and Shunshined away with him. As his sensei dislodged him, his four bodyguards erected a ' **Shishienjin (Four violet flames formation)** ', a large, cube-shaped barrier that burned anything on contact.

The other Kage and Yamamoto could only watch from the outside as Hiruzen confronted his old student.

"Orochimaru, I would say it's good to see you, but I'd be lying. After all, you did plan the destruction of my village."

"You knew?"

"Of course I did. My sources never fail me."

"That fool Jiraiya had no clues on this! I made sure of it myself!"

"What makes you think I referred to Jiraiya?"

Orochimaru seethed, grinding his teeth in anger before a smirk appeared on his face, which then became a grin.

"Well, we're having a significant reunion, you and I, Sarutobi-sensei, but I decided to make it even more memorable on your part. Have your predecessors, and sensei, join the party!"

As Orochimaru said this, he went through some handsings.

" **Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei! (Summoning: Impure World Ressurection)** "

Two coffins rose from the ground, the Kanji for first and second on the lids. Orochimaru would have summoned the fourth as well, had the man not been sealed in the Shinigami's stomach.

Both Orochimaru and Hiruzen, as well as everyone else, were surprised, however, when a small, red flash deposited Naruto Uzumaki next to Sarutobi Hiruzen. Before the old man could say a thing, Naruto spoke.

"Your combat robes when I bumped into you, you need to be more attentive, It could've been a paper bomb. Now don't worry and let me take care of the first and second, you go have your reunion with your student."

"Naruto, you may be strong but the first and the second are on a whole different level, which is-..."

"Which is why you should let me, the younger, more able-bodied one face them both, while your wrinkly behind faces pedosnake there. For once in my life, see me as the young adult I am, not the innocent child you hoped I still was."

Hiruzen nodded reluctantly at that, an eye on Naruto an another on Orochimaru as he spoke.

"Be careful, Naruto. That is all I ask of you."

Naruto saluted the man with two fingers as Orochimaru pushed the control tags onto the first an second.

Orochimaru spoke in a mixture of an annoyed and satisfied tone.

"I thought I couldn't hate anyone more than I hated Jiraiya, but you, brat, are taking me to new heights. You managed to make me hate you more than I hate Jiraiya, _Sensei_ and your bastard of a father all at once! But now, now this will end. You will no longer be a thorn in my side, as you and sensei dearest will meet your end today!"

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Shit's really hot, now! What's going to happen now? Stick around and find out!**

 **As always, please leave a Review, Follow and/or favorite if you enjoy the story! Thanks!**

 **FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	24. Chapter 24: Faking, Flaky, Facsmiles

**Disclaimer: Not me, not mine, don't care.**

 **Please remember to leave a review and a follow and/or favorite!**

 _ **-Chunnin exams stadiums-**_

The sand and sound nin emerged from amongst the now sleeping civillians, doing their best to surround the leeaf nin and give them no way out. Knowing that leaf nin were liable to go for suicide moves in order to protect their village, and not wishing to die, the two other factions decided to go for a cautious approach, keeping out of close range and observing for now, until...

"Brothers of Sand! The orders to betray Konoha were not the orders given by our Kazekage! Our lord was assassinated, replaced by the traitorous nin Orochimaru who would use us to try to wage war against his former homeland, despite the fact that he explicitly believed we would have been crushed in the exchange! This is not the way of the sand nin! Let us turn on those who intend to use us, and show them why we are one of the five major powers!"

The words of Baki, the Kazekage's right hand man, were amplified, first by the sound seals around the arena, and afterwards by specialized jutsu set up previously by Naruto. Throughout the entire village, everyone heard this pronouncement. The sand nin did not waste a second and started attacking the sound nin alongside the leaf nin, causing disarray in Sound's ranks as they expected to follow a certain plan.

Individuals outside the village walls had been tasked with summoning enormous snakes in order to rage around the village, trashing it and causing as much damage, both of property, of life and moral to the defending forces.

All of them happened to have fallen with a sudden case of slit throat, courtesy of Zabuza, one of Mei's bodyguards,various Konoha ANBU and individuals wearing black suits and sporting white masks with red spirals in the middle.

The chunnin exam finalists had not been idle either. They had been fighting while covering eachother's backs, taking down as many Oto nin as possible.

Gaara had gone for wide, large scale attacks, shaping his sand into sharp constructs which pierced and stabbed into the enemy.

Kankuro had his puppets flying around, delivering slashes and stabs with poisoned blades, and immobilizing before executing enemies.

Temari's winds were cutting down Oto shinobi left, right and center.

The others were not idle, with Fuu and Yugito tag-teaming a squad of Anbu, fuu having blown a metallic dust at them, and Yugito releasing a lightning jutsu, the electricity arching through the present dust...

Including the particles they had inhaled.

Shikamaru had been trapping enemies in shadows, either strangling them to death or directing others around him to finish them off.

Kakashi and Gai were simply fighting, years of experience allowing them to fall into the groove pretty easily.

Between the previously prepared Konoha Shinobi, and the Sand nin helping them, being from otogakure was really shitty today.

Orochimaru included.

 _ **-Rootop battle-**_

"Well this doesn't bring back memories at all."

Naruto spoke, of course, about the fact that Hashirama had been engaging him in an all-out taijutsu battle, punches, kicks, blocks and parries being exchanged back and forth at amazing speeds.

Knowing that he could take a hit, Naruto created an opening in his defense which allowed Hashirama to land an elbow to his side, trapping said elbow under his armpit before snapping a hard kick at Hashirama, his wind-encased leg nicking the man's torso as he had managed to dislodge himself and jump back just on the nick of time.

Tobirama dashed in afterwards, opening up with a quick barrage of fist-sized, high speed water bullets which would have broken bones and bruised organs had they landed, having met Naruto's own water bullets middair, canceling eachother out.

Hashirama clasped his hands on a snake handsign, even as Tobirama retreated away from where Naruto stood.

" **Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koutan! (Wood style secret technique: Deep Forest Emergence)** "

Massive roots emerged from the tiled roof they stood on, rushing Naruto's position even as they grew in size.

Naruto went through a few handsigns of his own before breathing in deeply.

' _ **Wind Style: Cutting Field!**_ '

Naruto breathed out a massive wall of seemingly concussive wind which changed mid-flight, turning into hundreds of extremely sharp wind blades, quartering the treeroots and halting their progress.

Seeing Tobirama clapping his hands together, Naruto went through another set of handsigns.

' _ **Suiton: Suishoha! (Water Style: Water Colliding Wave)**_ '

' _ **Water Style: Powerful Wave!**_ '

The two water style moves slammed into eachother, nullifying themselves and leaving the 3 fighters still in a standstill.

 _ **-Hiruzen vs Orochimaru-**_

"Sensei, you might want to say goodbye to Minato's brat, knowing that he's dying soon. Or maybe not, since you'll be meeting him shortly, no? Still, believing that he could simultaneously fight both of them, even if for a short while..."

"Orochimaru, we both know that those are pale facsmiles of the first and the second. Had you revived them at full power, you would have gotten your control tags fed to you before being uterly destroyed.

And if _you_ are strong enough to control them, then I'm sure Naruto is strong enough to hold the back while I give you the type of beating that I should have given you earlier. Perhaps then you wouldn't have turned out as monstrous as wicked as you have."

"Kukuku, you give yourself way too much credit, sensei. This is all me."

Tightly gripping his Adamantine staff, Hiruzen's eyes hardened with determination.

"You have just assuaged my guilt lightly, Orochimaru, but it can only truly be gone when I ensure you can no longer hurt any innocent lives."

Tired of talking, Orochimaru turned his legs into a snake's tail, dashing at his sensei in high speeds...

Only to have a boot planted on his face, shooting him away towards the remains of the first's tree that Naruto hadn't destroyed.

It was eerily reminiscent of what the blonde had done to him at the forest of death, and that just served to further irritate him.

Making his way up from the tree, Orochimaru regurgitated his sword before dashing back at Hiruzen, clashing his sword against the man's staff, again and again, the metallic clangs echoing around the barrier they were inside of.

Orochimaru managed to change the angle of his sword during one of their deadlocks, surprising Hiruzen when it shot forth, the sharp tip missing Hiruzen by a hair's breadth as the old man jumped back.

Allowing his blade to return to the original size, Orochimaru went through a few handsigns before slamming his hands on the ground, launching a massive earth spike at Hiruzen who simply jumped over the sharp point, running down the actual body of the spear and throwing out a jarring kick at Orochimaru, before rearing back his staff and bashing his head in...

Only for Orochimaru to become a mud figure.

Hiruzen used a quick Kawarimi, watching from a bit of a distance as the log where he previously was had been pierced by the extended Kusanagi.

The blade retracted once again, before master and student met eachother's gazes, and dashed at eachother.

 _ **-Naruto versus the first two Kage-**_

The level of the battle had ramped up further as the two first Kage engaged the blond in taijutsu simultaneously, though to his praise he didn't falter and managed to keep both at bay, receiving only the occasional close brush.

Deciding to go for the same strategy as before, he left an opening for Tobirama which he explored, watching the first heading for his chest and lightly turning, turning it into a grazing blow before he took hold of the second Hokage's arm, snapping a knee towards his head and throwing him away.

In an instant Naruto spat water down at his feet, said water coalescing around him as a defensive bubble which Hashirama's fist sunk in.

The dense, chakra-heavy water slowed the man down marginally, giving Naruto the time to blow in his way, releasing a powerful blast of water and pushing him out of the bubble.

Dropping his defense, Naruto eyed the two Senju carefully as plans percolated through his head.

 _ **-Hiruzen vs Orochimaru-**_

Having had enough of the Taijutsu battle, Orochimaru crouched down, his jaw unhinging to extreme levels.

' _ **Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes**_ **!** '

A nigh countless amount of snakes emerged from the Sannin's mouth, all swarming towards Hiruzen.

But, Hiruzen was considered the god of Shinobi for a reason.

The third Hokage made a shadow clone, and the two started going through handsigns simultaneously.

' _ **Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!/Fire Style: Dragon Flame jutsu!**_ '

The two techniques combined before impacting the night countless amount of snakes, raising a blazing firestorm which managed to distract Hashirama and Tobirama for an instant.

That was all the time Naruto needed.

Using the Shunshin, Naruto appeared in front of Tobirama, aiming a palm strike at his head. The white-haired, red-eyed man tried jumping backwards, but his feet had been trapped with an earth style technique. Naruto's palm hit him in the forehead, causing a sealing array to spread on it which completely froze the ressurected Kage.

Hashirama dashed towards the two, attempting to get Naruto, and try to release Tobirama, but he was surprised when Naruto disappeared in a red flash before Hashirama felt himself change directions.

Naruto appeared where he was to land, and he slammed a palm into the first's stomach, causing a sealing array to spread around him and keep him locked in place as well.

"These aren't even at a fraction of their full power... How insulting to their memory."

Orochimaru noticed the disabling of his two puppets, his eyes widening in disbelief before his jaw clenched in fury.

He was sick and tired of the blond brat, but he had to admit that things didn't look good for him now. Orochimaru made a decision.

Hiruzen was surprised by a blur from the raging firestorm, having the barest of moments to shift, feeling himself getting pierced through at stomach level instead of lung-level, before Orochimaru started attempting to leave, telling his bodyguards to drop the barrier as soon as he said so.

Naruto was instantly next to Hiruzen, putting pressure on the old man's wound.

Orochimaru turned to look at the scene, a triumphant look in his eyes at having seemingly eliminated the third, but his elation turned to confusion, then fear, and then pure agony.

Naruto gave him a withering glare, his eyes bleeding into red. Unlike the slit pupils he expectedd, however, the form of three intercepting elipses making a triangle over a a stylized slanted, straight-edged four-pointed shuriken manifested itself on the blonde's eyes.

' _Mangekyo Sharingan! But how!?_ '

His question was replaced with a scream of agony as black flames suddenly engulfed his arms, and at the last second his followers dropped the barrier, touching him and vanishing in a puff of smoke.

The ANBU intended on giving chase, but Naruto raised his hand.

"Stand down! He was reverse-summoned, you won't get shit from him! Now get a medic over here!"

The other Kage were extremely impressed at the blonde, having faced off against the first and second with seemingly little trouble, before forcing Orochimaru to retreat as he had. Plus, they all saw the eyes he used. It was another point in favour of not rekindling aggressions with Konoha, and Naruto more specifically, for everyone present.

Naruto used some of Kabuto's stolen expertise to stabilize Hiruzen, but he knew that the poison from Orochimaru's sword was out of his range of expertise. The ANBU moved the Hokage to a secure hospital room, even as Jiraiya arrived to the scene.

Before Jiraiya could say a thing to Naruto, the blonde waved him off as he started moving away.

"Ask the ANBU, I've shit to do right now."

 _ **-Underground tunnels-**_

Danzo seethed at the course of events. He had helped Orochimaru stage this whole event so that he could take over the weakened Konoha and take them back to the path of glory, but somehow his plans were fucked over again. He knew without a shadow of doubt that this had Naruto all over him.

His ears picking up the sounds of clashing metal and struggling, Danzo turned to face the door.

Said door was cut appart cleanly, leaving behind a pile of sawdust and revealing the form of Naruto.

"I told you I was coming after you, Danzo."

"I'm not afraid of you, _boy_. You're just a tool, a weapon for me to use!... To bring the village to greatness!"

"Freudian slip much? Just cut your Supernationalist, Hyperpatriotic bullshit routine. Everything you do is for the beneffit of Shimura Danzo, and Shimura Danzo alone. And that's why you'll be deleted."

"You think you can beat me? You're a thousand years too early, child!"

"I don't think I can beat you, I know I can absolutely destroy you."

Danzo's face contorted into a nasty sneer at that, and as he made a handsign to release the restraints on his right arm, Naruto's eyes morphed again, and he said one single word that filled the man's heart with dread.

A power that he had coveted above all others.

" **Kotoamatsukami.** "

The man's body froze in place, an elaborate illusion running through his mind. Taking slow steps towards Danzo, Naruto raised his blade and first cut off his artificial arm, incinerating the faulty piece of cloning monstrocity, before lopping off the man's head.

And like that, the Darkness of the Shinobi died. In obscurity, where he always acted.

His job done here, Naruto turned around and took a few steps outside of the door before vanishing in a red flash, right before a massive amount of water flooded the underground cave system.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Hiruzen's down, as is Danzo, and Orochimaru got hurt. The sand turned on the sound, and all of the foreign, still living Kage witnessed some of Naruto's true battle prowess. How will this change things? Find out in the next chapter!**

 **As always, please leave a review, and a Favorite and/or follow if you enjoyed!**

 **FrancoGamerxz out! Ja ne!**


	25. Chapter 25: Old friends come knocking

**Yadda yadda, not mineroonio.**

 **Review, favorite and follow if you like!**

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto was having a pretty shit week.

It all started when a certain white-haired toad sage showed up at his house, telling him that he had been assigned to a mission with him as his captain. They were to seek out Tsunade of the Sannin, and get her to heal Hiruzen.

He did not want to have to spend any time with Jiraiya, but helping save the old man was paramount, so he put his feelings aside and went on with it.

1 Week later and Naruto was about to strangle Jiraiya. The man would occasionally leave Naruto to his own devices, telling them to hold position while he went to 'collect information', only to show up smelling of booze and cheap perfume, lipstick marks covering him.

Still, Naruto endured. He didn't want his mission record tarnished, and he didn't trust Jiraiya not to be vindictive enough to claim insubordination were he to try and do something actually productive.

Another night and Naruto was considering whether or not to strangle Jiraiya in his sleep. The man had left off when a woman in a tight, black dress flirted lightly with him, leaving Naruto alone in his hotel room.

Naruto felt three strong chakra signatures, two of them together, one bijuu level and one the average S-rank, while the third one was a bit away, sporting only high A-rank chakra, though it was well supressed. This signature also seemed to be coming out of a wall somewhere in the corridor, while Naruto didn't know exactly where.

A knock on the door, by the signature next to the bijuu-level one, had Naruto, in a pair of black and white boxer shorts and a tank top, making his way to the door and opening it.

"Oh, isn't this a surprise? Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi knocking on my door in the middle of the night."

Kisame grinned, his sharp, shark-like teeth giving it a naturally vicious and bloodthirsty look, even as Itachi spoke in his cold, mostly apathetic tone.

"Uzumaki Naruto-kun, you seem to know of us, so you know what we are capable of. I'd like to avoid conflict, so I'd enjoy it if you came with us with no ruckus."

Naruto waved his right hand nonchallantly at that, shrugging that off as a minor matter.

"Nonsense, Itachi-san. We've met for the first time in a while, so I'm not letting you and your companion leave without a cup of tea and some time to catch up. Afterwards we can deal with the unpleasantness."

Kisame looked at Itachi, expecting him to make a decision. Seeing the black-haired man nod his head lightly, Kisame shrugged. Naruto fully opened the door, letting them in before poking his head out into the corridor and calling out.

"Oii, wall-plant-person, you're also invited for tea. It'd be impolite for me to leave you out, now wouldn't it?"

Zetsu stiffened from his place within the wall, not expecting anyone to be capable of sensing him, before he had an internal debate. Deciding to try and pry more information out of the blond before Itachi and Kisame invariably took him, Zetsu slowly emerged from the wall and into aNaruto's view, who blinked owlishly.

"Ah, Zetsu the cannibal."

The Half-black, half-white plant-man walked into Naruto's room, taking a seat next to Itachi and Kisame, surprising both with his presence while Naruto made his way to the kitchenette area of the room, whipping up a pot of green tea.

Placing ceramic mugs in front of the seats of each Akatsuki member, he poured the tea before pouring in the mug for himself.

Itachi and Zetsu eyed him suspiciously and expectantly, until he took a sip of his own tea and let out a sigh of satisfaction at that, showing the criminal shinobi that the tea wasn't poisoned, which meant that they, in turn, drank some tea of their own.

Kisame was the one to break the comfortable silence.

"So, kid... You and Itachi know eachother for long?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow before asking in an airy tone.

"Why, are you jealous? Afraid for your special relationship?"

Kisame got mad at that, but before he could take hold of his Samehada to swing, Itachi spoke up.

"Naruto, you know that that won't work."

At Zetsu and Kisame's questioning looks, Itachi spoke up.

"He makes it a game to try and find the best way to make me lose my composure."

"Hey, I did it before, I can do it again! And this time, I won't need the honeycomb, the rubber chicken and the-"

"Naruto, I'm sure you have questions to ask us."

Naruto smirked at that.

"Trying to change the subject, Itachi? Not very sporting of you, but I'll allow it this once. But no, I don't really have any questions."

The three people in cloaks blinked owlishly at that, before Kisame starting speaking in an incredulous tone.

"Really? No questions at all? Why you're being targeted, what we want from you, what's with the cloaks, nothing?"

Naruto shrugged at that, taking another sip of his steaming tea before answering.

"About the cloaks, I know that there's a mercenary group called the Akatsuki that do dirty work for whomever pays them well enough. As to why I'm being targeted, and what you want from me... Does it really matter? When a mercenary organization composed of S-rank missing nin want something from you, then you can usually presume it not to be anything good. So no, I don't really have any questions."

White Zetsu had to speak up at that.

"Wow, you're really taking this 'hunted by S-ranks' deal better than most others would. Aren't you even a bit afraid?"

Naruto shrugged at that.

"Not really. After all, you already took the poison I planned for you to."

Kisame's eyes widened at that.

"But you drank the tea as well!"

Itachi was next.

"The teacups. The poison was in the teacups."

Naruto crossed his arms at that, nodding sagely.

"Indeed, the poison was in the teacups... Or would have been had I intended to poison you. None of you even bothered checking as soon as I drank the tea. Next time it might not be me just fucking with your heads.

And the reason why I'm not worried about the three of you? I was never, at any one moment, with the three of you."

With that, Naruto collapsed into a puddle of blood.

Itachi looked at Kisame, Kisame looked at Itachi, before both looked at Zetsu. Kisame was the one to speak.

"Smart brat."

Itachi nodded, answering in his cold, passive tone.

"Yup."

"Really, really smart brat."

"Yup."

"I'll cut off his legs next time."

"I wouldn't stop you. He promised never to mention that incident again."

The other two turned a curious look on Itachi, before Kisame started speaking.

"Itachi, what-"

"If you ask about the incident, I'll use the Tsukyomi on you."

"I didn't say anything."

Like that, the three Akatsuki members left the room, giving up on capturing the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki for now and going for their own separate assignments.

 _ **-The next morning-**_

Sensing for chakra signatures, Naruto found Jiraiya's in the hotel room. Deciding that the coast was clear, he climbed into the room through the window. The white-haired man turned a stern look at him before speaking.

"I thought I told you to stay in the hotel room."

Naruto responded frostily.

"You did."

"And why, pray tell, did you not stay in the room?"

"Maybe it was the fact that while you were out there, traipsing with tramps and cavorting with whores, I had Hoshigaki Kisame, Uchiha Itachi and Zetsu the Cannibal of the Akatsuki paying me a home visit. Probably had something to do with that."

Jiraiya's face changed from angry to panicked at that.

"Naruto, are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"

Sneering at the older man, Naruto answered acidly.

"If you cared about that, you would've been here. Once again, you abandon me to the sharks and then try to play the concerned party."

"Goddamnit Naruto! This is a serious matter! The Akatsuki are very dangerous, their interest in you can only mean danger for the forseeable future! Can't you put your grudge for me aside for a second to ensure your safety?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed at that, his tone becoming sharp even as killing intent started lightly leaking out of him.

"Don't you say that to me you fucking hypocrite! You can't even give up your perversions and your whoring for one week in order to try and save the old man's life! How the fuck can you say that to me with a straight face?"

"Are you saying I don't worry about saving sensei?"

"Your words, not mine. Your actions certainly don't reflect your willingness to help him!"

"What's it to you anyway? Don't you hate the old man now? I'd think you wouldn't care if he di-"

Naruto's punch caught Jiraiya by surprise, though it shouldn't. Naruto's eyes shifted in his anger, the pattern of his sharingan overtaking the iris and intensifying his glare as he spoke.

"DON'T EVER SAY THAT! I may have kept the old man at arm's length for a few months in order to teach him a lesson about trust and honesty, but he is still and always will be my grandfather! That will never change!"

Jiraiya gingerly rubbed his cheek, glaring at Naruto as he spat out a gob of blood before speaking up.

"Why are you so willing to forgive the old man and not me?"

Naruto's face of anger shifted to incredulity at that.

"What. You... What. Please tell me you didn't just say that."

Seeing Jiraiya's pursed lips and closed posture, Naruto moved around the room packing up his things.

"What are you doing, kid?"

"I'm packing. I don't care what you do, you can mark me for insubordination for all I care, but I won't let the old man die."

Naruto finished packing, putting on a black t-shirt with a red spiral in front of it and a pair of white shorts with blue sandals on his feet. Before he could jump out the window, Jiraiya called out.

"Naruto, give me 5 minutes. I'll go with you."

Pursing his lips tightly, Naruto gave him a minute nod.

 _ **-3 Days later, Tanzaku Town-**_

"My contacts say that Tsunade is here in Tanzaku-gai. Aside from the various casinos and bars, the underground scene here is very active."

Naruto nodded at that, his face devoid of emotion.

The two placed down their gear before splitting up to search the town. By the time the sun set, the two met up at the doors of the same bar. It was the last place both decided to check for the night, coincidentally at the same time. Naruto entered ahead, searching for the pigtailed blonde.

"Naruto?"

The voice came from a brunette with neck-long straight hair, her body clad in a black Kimono and a pink pig held in her hands, the pig clad in a red vest with pink pearls around her neck.

She was Kato Shizune, niece of Kato Dan and disciple of Tsunade, the slug sage.

At seeing Shizune, Naruto visibly relaxed, a sigh of relief leaving his mouth as his tensed shoulders slumped in relaxation.

"Shizune-nee, you have no idea how glad I am to find you here. I need to talk to Baa-chan, urgently."

Shizune nodded, directing Naruto towards a booth in the back even as she spoke, Jiraiya listening and asking himself how Naruto knew Shizune and Tsunade.

"Tsunade-Sama asked me to go get the next round at the bar, I was just heading back towards her."

As soon as the booth came into sight, Tsunade's gaze rose to see Naruto, her eyebrows rising to her hairline.

"Didn't expect to meet you here, brat."

After that, her eyes flicked to Jiraiya for an instant, before focusing back on Naruto.

"And you led the pervert straight to me. Perfect." 

Naruto shook his head at that.

"He didn't follow me. You know I'm better than that, Baa-chan. No. I intended to come meet you on my own, but the _honorable elders_ decided to turn it into a mission, with Jiraiya as chaperone."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed at that even as she watched Naruto and Jiraiya sliding into the booth across from her. She poured herself and Naruto a saucer of sake each, before she started tipping it back.

"You've been ordered to return to Konoha." 

Jiraiya's words caused Tsunade to spit her sake out and it would've reached Naruto had he not used his water element prowess to stop it mid-air, before sending it out the window.

"Hell no! You know why I left, and I'm not setting foot back in there!"

"You don't have a choice. The council signed off on the document stating your sannin travelling rights to have been revoked pending further evaluation. If you don't return, you'll be branded a missing nin."

"LIKE HELL!"

The outraged tone came not from Tsunade, as Jiraiya expected, but from an angrily glaring Naruto.

"These kinds of decisions are to be made with the presence of the entire Shinobi council!"

Jiraiya rolled a parchment open on the table, revealing the order with various clan stamps.

"It was."

Naruto scowled at that.

"It wasn't. The Uzumaki-Namikaze clan wasn't even made aware of the meeting in question. Without the stamp of my clan, that piece of paper isn't worth shit."

Tsunade turned a grateful look on Naruto, who gave her a serious one in response.

"Don't thank me yet, Baa-chan. You're not going to like what I have to say. Your old teammate, pedosnake, crashed the chunnin exams finals and put the old man in a coma. The only medic with enough prowess to save him is you. I need you to stay in the village until he's alright."

Tsunade scowled at that, drinking down another saucer of sake before speaking.

"You better than anyone else should understand why I don't want to set foot back there, Naruto."

Naruto nodded at that.

"I do, and that's why I'm sorry about what I'm about to do. Baa-chan, I'm calling in two favors. One of them is to come back with me to take care of the old man and make sure he's alright, the other one is private, best not discussed in present company."

As he said that he gave Jiraiya a sideways glance, before letting his gaze return to Tsunade.

"After that, what you do is up to yourself. But I can tell you this, I won't stand for letting my possibly last remaining relative gain missing nin status. As long as you don't act against it's best interests, the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan is behind you all the way."

Tsunade took a deep pull directly from the sake bottle, before she eyed Naruto suspiciously.

"When did you get so strong, brat?"

Naruto blinked owlishly at the seemingly random question.

"Excuse me?"

"I asked when you got so strong. Orochimaru came around with this albino young man with two dots on his forehead. His arms were bandaged and he seemed to be in agony over them. Said that a loathsome blonde did it to him. So, how did you do it?"

"Trade secret. So, snake face was here. I doubt he just came for a social chat."

"He didn't. He wants me to heal his arms."

"And what did he offer you in exchange?"

Tsunade swirled around a saucer full of sake, and damn if she wasn't putting them down fast and hard, before raising her serious gaze to Naruto's.

"He promised to bring Dan and Nawaki back."

Naruto shrugged.

"He _could_ bring them back, but he would be doing so to use them as puppets to emotionally blackmail you. It's called ' **Edo Tensei** ' and I've got experience with it. I assure you, you don't want him to do it."

Tsunade shrugged at that.

"Seems like he's gonna be disappointed when he comes back."

"Comes back?"

Tsunade nodded, taking another sip of her saucer before answering.

"He said he'd be here in a week for my answer. Seems he's gonna be waiting on nothing."

A vicious grin spread across Naruto's face at that.

"I wouldn't say that... Tsunade, how do you feel about playing a massive prank on Orochimaru?"

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! 1 Day delay because of school-related stuff, but we're still here.**

 **Please leave a review, favorite and/or follow. FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	26. Chapter 26: Threeways and 3 way battles

_**Not mine, not mine, not mine, ad infinitum etc**_

 _ **-Later, Naruto's room-**_

"We haven't finished our conversation from before we moved, kid."

"Fuck's sake, Jiraiya. I just managed to get Tsunade to go back to treat the old man. Give me a fucking rest."

"No. Matter of fact, how do you two even know eachother?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed at that.

"None of your business. Now drop it."

"No, I won't drop it! What makes it so that the Old man gets a pass, but you won't even give me a chance?"

"The fact that the old man was always there for me whenever he could. He often put himself in awkward positions pollitically just to protect me. He tried to keep his promise to my parents to have me seen as a hero, and to protect me. They didn't go as expected, but he at least tried! I admit, I was angry when I found out the truth about everything, but I had more than enough time to think things over and get over my anger. I had him sweating for a bit so he knew not to lie to me again, even if he thinks it would protect me, but... That may not get to happen. I may not get the chance to hug my grandfather again, and it may happen because you pussyfooted around instead of doing shit that you should be doing in the first place.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll find myself a place to sleep where I don't feel like strangling my roommate."

With that, Naruto jumped out the window. Jiraiyia didn't even bother giving chase, giving Naruto time to cool down. Whenever he tried to establish rapport with the boy, they ended up arguing. Was it so hard to even give him a chance? Was he so bad in his eyes?

But, most of all.

If Naruto didn't even give him a chance, how was he to help him fulfill the prophecy?

 _ **-Sleepy Pig Inn-**_

Naruto saw the light still on in the room Tsunade and Shizune shared, expecting the older woman to still be drinking herself out of her socks.

Easily and stealthily climbing up the wall, Naruto silently unlocked the window and snuck into the room. He turned back to the window, locking it back again as he hear a door clicking, and the smell of gauze and rubbing alcohol told him it was Shizune. He spoke as he worked the locking mechanism, without turning around to face her.

"Hey Shizune-nee, I hope you don't mind me staying here tonight. If I'm forced to stay with the pervert I may have to smother him in his sleep."

Not hearing a response, Naruto turned around only to see a stupified, wet and very _Naked_ Shizune, a towel hanging off of her hand, her eyebrows all the way up and her mouth wide open. She had frozen up that way, giving Naruto a full, if accidental, view of her goods.

A thin trail of blood trickled down Naruto's nose.

"Huh. Looking good, Shizune."

These words managed to unfreeze Shizune, causing her to default for the ' _ **Pervert Beating no Jutsu**_ ', only for Naruto to reappear in a different corner of the room, his eyes still shamelessly roving over her form before he reached a decision.

"Fuck it. I've been over 2 years ( _Time chamber_ ) without a good fuck, and I doubt you've managed to get much going while travelling around with baa-chan, and having to babysit her most often than not. How about we help eachother relax?"

Having managed to calm down somewhat, Shizune wrapped her towel around herself, a tint of red manifesting itself on her face.

"Naruto, I'm 28!"

"And you're still hot as hell. Let's not make this more complicated than needed. Baa-chan is out, we've probably got the room to ourselves and you have to admit that I don't look half bad myself."

" _That's putting it mildly_ " Shizune mumbled lightly before speaking up again "But still, we're family of a sort! We shouldn't do these kinds of things! Plus, I still think that the age difference would make things awkward."

"First of all, we don't really share blood. Second of all, says who. Third of all, it's only awkward if you make it awkward."

With that, Naruto slunk over to the other side of the room, letting one of his hands move over Shizune's arm while his other hand dragged along her inner thigh, releasing sporadic pulses of chakra which caused the brunette to let out moans of pleasure as she felt herself get excited.

Naruto shifted his other hand to the edge of Shizune's towel, untucking it and allowing it to drop on the bed, baring her to him completely again. Pulling her onto his lap and allowing her to feel his member, Naruto started planting light kisses and nips along her neck, causing her to mewl and moan at the sensation.

From then on, the rest of the night was spent with a kind of stress relief most people wouldn't picture a 28-year old and a 14-year-old partaking of.

Tsunade had been returning to the room, having just vacated a bar, but she heard the sounds of intense lovemaking coming from her room. Opening the door, she was witness to the lithe form of Shizune bouncing on Naruto's flesh pole, but damn if it wasn't a majestic sight.

A twinge went down her spine to her core at the sight of Naruto's pole, and before she could do much more than stammer she heard the door closing behind her, before a pair of hands started massaging her shoulders.

Looking behind herself, she saw blonde hair and blue eyes in the same fashion as the bo-no, man sitting on the bed with her student, before she felt herself get divested from her clothes.

Having not had any sexual contact with anyone ever since Dan's death, Tsunade had normally used her booze and gambling to distract herself from her needs as much as she did it to distract herself from her woes, but now, the alcohol reducing her inhibitions and reservations, the musky, heady scent making her feel a bit lightheaded and heat flare in her gash, and the moans of sheer bliss emmanating from Shizune had her saying screw it to all normal conventions and allow herself to be taken to a couch by Naruto, where he ravished her body again and again.

3 hours later and it was a tired, dopey-faced shizune, a glowing Tsunade and a smirking Naruto who made their way to the restaurant, sitting down at the same table as the white haired pervert. The moment he saw Jiraiya, noting the opportunity to needle him and be as much of an ass as the older man had been to him, Naruto placed his hand on Tsunade's chest, and _groped_ her.

Jiraiya gaped at that, his gape increasing further when Tsunade's only reaction to Naruto's touch was to blush and moan instead of the rage and the beating he expected, and knew, would happen were it him.

That night, Jiraiya got himself drunk before crying himself to sleep, while Naruto, Tsunade and Shizune repeated the previous events.

And like that, a week passed until it was time for Orochimaru to approach Tsunade.

 _ **-Tanzaku-Gai outskirts, grassy plains-**_

"Ah, Tsunade. I see you did not commit the mistake of running from me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just do this."

Orochimaru approached Tsunade with Kimimaro besides him. The blonde woman unwrapped Orochimaru's arms, the unraveling of the gauze causing Orochimaru to let out hisses of pain.

When she finished taking apart the whole thing, she was met with blackened skin and flesh, cracking in some areas, eaten through in others. It looked very painful, but she could fix it. Had she intended to, of course.

Going through the handsigns to start her diagnostic jutsu in order to know the true extent of Orochimaru's injuries, Tsunade started making some small talk.

"Y'know, I heard the rumors circulating from your failed invasion on leaf. You said a some blonde something-or-another did this to you, right?"

Orochimaru gave a grudging nod, gritting his teeth in anger at the subject of the conversation, while Tsunade calmly soldiered on.

"Imagine my surprise when I'm told that it was a kid, a 14-year-old brat who used to be the dead last of his graduation class. It's as if you were beaten by the 14 year old version of Jiraiya!"

Never having made that connection before, Orochimaru became even angrier at Naruto, and Tsunade continued.

"Some of the rumors told me that he beat you so bad that you had to tuck your tail between your... Coils? ... And run. Is this the truth, Orochimaru? Are you really this pitiful right now?"

Sneering in anger at Tsunade, Orochimaru raised his leg intending on kicking the blonde, only for his blow to be blocked with a single, open hand. Tsunade gave him a venomous look before throwing him away.

"Fuck you, you bastard. The deal is off, I'm gonna go get drunk."

"No it is not! Kimimaro, do it!"

The albino-ish boy with the two red dots on his forehead slashed at his arm with a kunai, flicking the blood at the blonde and causing her to freeze up before falling back onto her behind, her body shaking uselessly at the sight.

Enjoyed the misery he was putting her through, Orochimaru approached the pitiful looking Tsunade and spoke with a sneer.

"Not so high and mighty now, are we bitch? I intended on simply fulfilling our bargain, but now I'm going to take you to oto and after I'm healed you'll be used in as many experiments as your healing jutsu can recover from!"

The snake man once again reared back a leg to kick at Tsunade, only to be surprised by a heavy fist slamming against his face and throwing him away. His head was pounding, feeling as if it was about to split open. Looking to his side he saw Kimimaro in a not so better situation than him.

Looking back at Tsunade, he noted with surprise, and anger, that she seemed to be completely alright with the blood over her.

"How! I know you were Hemophobic! What changed!?"

"I helped her get over it."

Orochimaru heard the hated voice of his blonde-haired detractor before he and the white-haired fool made themselves known, dropping besides Tsunade, with Tsunade's assistant also present.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Orochimaru spoke.

"You fucking cretin! You moronic bastard of a child, why do you always get involved where you shouldn't!? But now, now I am going to delete you, no doubt about it!"

With that he nodded at Kimimaro, who cut his own finger and slid it over the snake tattoo on Orochimaru's wrist, summoning Manda the snake boss, alongside two other snakes almost as large, one of the a vibrant red with black diamonds across it's body, the other a poisonous green with black tiger stripes all over it.

Naruto, Jiraiya and Tsunade went throught a slew of handsigns, bit their thumbs and then slammed their hands upon the ground.

" **Kuchiyose no Jutsu! (Summoning Jutsu)** " (x3)

A massive cloud of smoke covered the clearing, covering the three before a strong breeze blew them away, revealing three massive beasts.

Jiraiya was perched on the head of a red toad, a slash scar over his left eye, a blue vest adorning his body, a pipe in his mouth and an appropriately-sized tanto strapped to his back. This was Gamabunta, boss summon of the toads.

Tsunade was under a similarly sized slug, it's body mostly white with a greenish-blue striped going over each of it's sides and over it's back, two eyestalks protruding from the front of it's head, two whisker-like stalks flanking it's mouth. This was Katsuyu, boss summon of the slugs.

Naruto was over a giant panther, some discolored and missing patches of fur revealing slashes and bite marks. It's face had three parallel slashes running down the forehead and between the eyes reminiscent of an animal's claws, it's left ear was missing some of it's tip, and it's face was locked in a dangerous snarl, the greenish-yellow eyes locked onto the form of the snakes, and the mouthful of sharp, gleaming fangs bared in a display of agression. This was Bast, boss summon of the panthers.

" **Naruto, is this the snake man you told me about?** "

The panther's eyes were locked directly on Orochimaru.

"Indeed it was, Bast."

Snarling, the panther leapt at Manda, intending to get to Orochimaru, but the tiger-striped snake slammed into Bast's side, forcing it aside. Bast recovered into a horizontal roll, getting back to his feet, before snarling dangerously at the snake that attacked him.

The other snake, the one with the diamonds over it's body, joined stripes as they hissed at Bast dangerously.

Bast crouched low at this, slinking around the field and not allowing the snakes out of his sight.

 _ **-Tsunade and Jiraiya vs Orochimaru-**_

"I knew there was a reason I hated Minato and Kushina. It was my intuition telling me that their offspring would be such a troublesome little shit."

"Don't speak like that about Minato/ Don't speak like that about Naruto!"

Came simultaneously from, respectively, Jiraiya and Tsunade.

Manda, tired of simply allowing the puny humans to banter, dashed towards Gamabunta, it's mouth wide open and poised for a bite, but Bunta simply hopped over Manda. Not intent on changing courses, Manda headed towards Katsuyu, biting into her side before wrapping tight around her.

Imagine his surprise when she split into smaller parts, leaving a trail of acidic slime inside of his mouth.

Manda hissed in pain, shaking it's head as if trying to shake off the slime before it burrowed into the earth completely, just seconds before Gamabunta fell in a stab that would've pierced through it's head.

A tail emerged from the ground, heading straight towards Gamabunta who crossed his arms, reducing the damage taken. He was thrown upwards, flipping around in the air before...

"Bunta!" Jiraiya spoke from his spot on Gamabunta's head as they fell "Give me some oil!"

Gamabunta made a tiger handsign before spitting a large amount of oil, with Jiraiya breathing in and letting loose a large flame, creating a massive wave of fire.

" **Katon: Gamayu Endan! (Fire release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet)** "

The wave swallowed the area Manda was supposedly on, tearing apart the ground it had hidden in and crating a small blaze.

The flames died out quickly, revealing a shed skin in place of the actual Manda, before the snake once again tried biting into Bunta's side, the blow being deflected with the use of Bunta's blade before the two went into a deadlock, with Katsuyu sliming Manda's coils with sticky slime in order to slow it's movements.

With the summons in a deadlock, the summoners decided to act.

 _ **-Shizune vs Kimimaro-**_

The brunette was having a hard time dealing with Orochimaru's aide. Her launched senbon seemed to not even penetrate his skin, white patches of something emerging periodically from it, and she didn't have time to try her poison spewing jutsu because he kept shooting his... Finger bones?

' _What the fuck is wrong with this Orochimaru fella and his people? Fingerbones, really?_ '

Engaging in Taijutsu was not an option, it was her weakest field and she had no doubt he could trounce her in it. Now she regrets not having listened to Genma back when he told her to not neglect her taijutsu for her medical skills.

Kimimaro seemed to have had enough of fighting at her pace, because he dashed in, rolling his wrist forward and releasing a sharpened bone in the shape of a sword from his arm and going for a vertical slash, only for said slash to be blocked by a black and red sword held by a blond-haired blue-eyed male.

Said sword had a glossy, black blade, with a red wave pattern on it leading to a diamond-shaped guard, which itself led to a hilt covered in black wrappings, leading into a pommel shaped into a snarling dragon head, it's eyes glowing an ominous red.

Kimimaro hopped backwards, assessing the threat of the blonde individual.

"Shizune-chan, move away. Things are going to get intense and you could get hurt."

Being intelligent and caring more about her life than her pride, Shizune simply nodded and made distance with a few shunshin's, watching the battle from a safe distance.

Naruto turned to look at Kimimaro, looking at him appraisingly for a second before speaking.

"You're a Kaguya, aren't you?"

Kimimaro's impassiveness wasn't disturbed at that, with him simply shifting his grip on his bone sword before dashing forth, releasing a plethora of high speed stabbing thrusts.

" **Dance of the Camelia.** "

Kimimaro was surprised when Naruto met him thrust by thrust, the pointed tip of the blonde's sword not even dulling against his bone, and instead whittling away at the bone.

Seeing that thrusts wouldn't work, Kimimaro shifted to small scale slashes with the tip of the blade, trying to go for small, yet precise gashes.

Once again, Naruto responded by matching him flick by flick, deflecting his blows efortlessly.

Kimimaro was starting to get frustrated at the unflappable nature of his oponent, matching him blow for blow, never intiating attack, never trying to create advantage. He felt as if his skills were being looked down upon.

Hopping back a half-step, Kimimaro sprouted bone blades from the palms of his hands, his shoulders, knees and legs before he dashed at Naruto, twirling, spinning and swaying in an attempt to cut or perforate the blonde.

" **Dance of the Willow.** "

Naruto responded by simply retreating at the same speed as Kimimaro advanced, taking the occasional moment to deflect a bone that'd been straying too close to him. Kimimaro retracted one of his shoulder swords, shoulder checking the blonde before making it thrust out again and pierce his oponent through the stomach...

Only for him to vanish in a cloud of smoke.

Kimimaro felt motion behind him, so he quickly adapted.

" **Dance of the Larch!** "

Various bones protruded tip-first from all over Kimimaro's body, intent on skewering an attacker with damage proportional to the strength of the blow. Naruto was forced to stop mid kick, hopping back and making distance from Kimimaro before going through some handsigns.

" **Wind Style: Vacuum Blades!** "

Once again, Kimimaro created bone plates all over his body, protecting himself from the wind blades, though deep gouges were left on the plates.

Seeing that fighting at this level would take him nowhere, he decided to ramp things up. Doing a ram handsign, Kimimaro allowed the cursed seal to consume him, going directly to the second level.

His skin gained a maroon-ish tone, six large bones protruding from his back, three on each side. His fingernails became sharp claws, his white hair turned grey, black markings became pronounced around his eyes and a long tail protruted from his tailbone, sharpened bones covering it as spikes.

' _Now, let's see you deal with this, Uzumaki!_ '

 _ **-Bast vs Twin Snakes-**_

The red snake once again lunged at Bast, it's hooked fangs dripping a purple venom that seemed to melt the grass that it fell on. Bast jumped upwards, only to receive a tail strike from the tiger striped snake and being thrown back to the ground, making a large crater.

Shaking off his daze, Bast hopped back just in time to avoid another corrosive bite, before the striped snake attempted to surround him to probably squeeze him to death, or at least until he dispelled.

Tired of the foolishness of these jumped-up upstart youths, Bast let out a roar that shook the entire battlefield, the shockwave dislodging his would-be constrictor before he raised his right clawed paw, his sharp claws glowing lightly as he charged them with wind chakra before swiping at the lunging diamondback.

The snake twisted out of the way, finding an opening at Bast's side, and as it intended to lunge there...

It felt the lower part of it's body not responding.

The head fell on the ground, thrashing around until it's position shifted, revealing a cleanly severed midsection.

Then, everything turned black for the snake before it vanished in a puff of smoke, it's corpse sent back to the land of the snakes.

The tiger striped companion intended to retreat, but as it started slithering away it felt itself get trapped. Looking down, it saw a hand emerging from it's own shadow and clamping down on it's muscular tail.

Looking back at the Panther, it saw a wide open jaw and heard what seemed like a sonic boom, before it met oblivion.

Bast closed his mouth after having released his compressed air blast, raising his hand and allowing it to emerge from the shadows. Looking back at the three deadlocked summons, Bast sunk into the shadows, planning his strike.

 _ **-Tsunade and Jiraiya vs Orochimaru-**_

' _I fucking hate blondes._ '

That was Orochimaru's thought after being socked in the jaw by Tsunade. _Again_.

His two older teammates were double-teaming him, and since they weren't pre-pubescent boys, he wasn't even enjoying it!

Jiraiya would trade blows with him, making use of the fact that his arms were busted to pull of daring moves that he knew would not usually work, immobilizing his legs for enough time for Tsunade to land her own blow.

Manda wasn't very much help either, having been stalled by the toad and the slug .

Opening his jaw wide, Orochimaru released a rain of snakes that Jiraiya dispatched with a quick " **Katon: Endan! (Fire style: Flame Bullet)** ", but before anything else could happen, a large shadow covered them.

 _ **-Naruto vs Kimimaro-**_

" **Dance of the Clematis: Flower!** "

A drill-like, sharpened bundle of bones covered Kimimaro's left arm before he dashed at Naruto, his speeds increasing considerably, attemping to pierce through the blonde's stomach.

Naruto hopped to the side, but was met with Kimimaro's tail snapping against his side, sending him skidding away.

Smirking, the Uzumaki unsheathed his sword again before Kimimaro dashed, alternating between striking with the bone drill and his tail, each of the blows deflected by Naruto's sword before he was countered with a blow to the joints with the blunt side of the sword.

Ignoring those love taps, Kimimaro feigned a drill strike, pulling out his own spine with his free right hand, attempting to ensnare the blonde with it and going with a killer thrust with the drill, but Naruto responded by deflecting the whip forcefully, the pressure released by his sword swing pushing it away from his body even as the drill moved towards him. He parried the drill before kicking Kimimaro in the stomach, throwing him away.

Kimimaro tried standing back up, but he felt as if his limbs did not want to respond. The joint blows had finally gotten to him.

Not willing to fail his master, Kimimaro used his ultimate technique.

" **Dance of the Seedling Fern!** "

Slamming his hands on the ground, Kimimaro pushed in as much chakra into it as he possibly could, causing a forest of sharp, jagged bones to emerge from below them, spanning a good few kilometers.

Naruto managed to not be skewered by sticking with chakra to the blunt sides of the bones, changing when a potentially dangerous one grew too close for comfort.

Suddenly Naruto had to jump away from the bone he was in, just a second before Kimimaro emerged from it, bone drill pushed forward in order to pierce him.

Seeing that down was death, and forward was death as well, Naruto vanised in a red flash.

He appeared at the edge of the forest, sheathing his sword before going into a half-crouch, his right hand holding tightly onto the hilt, while his left hand steadied the scabbard. He lowered his face, his hair covering his eyes even as his legs bent further into the crouch, left in front of the right.

Raising his head, his eyes hardened as his legs tensed.

It happened in a second.

A twitch of his legs, a blur of motion, a flash of silver and Naruto was already at the other side of the bone forest, his katana already almost completely re-sheathed.

As soon as the guard clicked into place on the scabbard, the entire bone forest was suddenly bisected horizontally with a clean, laser-precision cut. Kimimaro himself had been slashed in half from within the bone he was in.

Now the spiky bone forest was a forest of blunt, bone cylinders.

Having finished his battle with Kimimaro and having checked on Shizune, Naruto headed towards the battlefield shared by the Sannin.

 _ **-Jiraiya and Tsunade vs Orochimaru-**_

Orochimaru and Jiraiya looked up, spotting a black... something growing closer, and whatever it was it was massive. Not being complete idiots, the two shunshined away from their position on top of Manda, with Jiraiya and Tsunade ending on the same side, and Orochimaru opposite of them.

 ***BOOM!***

A massive quake shook the entire clearing, a large cloud of dust rising around the summons.

Naruto rejoined Jiraiya and Tsunade just as the cloud abated, revealing a black panther clamping onto Manda's side, drawing blood, even as Manda did it's best to try and thrash his way free. Knowing that staying there meant death, Manda dispelled himself, right before Bunta and Katsuyu did, having gotten very tired from the fight.

Bast met Naruto's gaze, both sharing a nod, before he dispelled himself.

Orochimaru glared hatefully at Naruto, seeing the 14 year old _Brat_ daring to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sannin, as if he deserved to be there!

His glare turned into a smirk, however, causing Jiraiya and Tsunade to shoot him cautious looks.

"I should've known that you'd be mucking up my plans even now, boy. But, though I hoped you'd not stick your nose where you're not invited, I prepared for the eventuality of you doing so."

Orochimaru then went through a few handsigns, the sheer exhilaration and the knowledge of what was about to happen dulling any pain he would be feeling, before he slammed both hands on the ground.

" **Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei! (Summoning: Impure world ressurection)** "

A coffin with the kanji for ' **Red** ' on the lid emerged from the ground, causing Naruto's eyes to sharpen in focus, even as Jiraiya and Tsunade gaped in both panic and incredulity.

The lid of the coffin popped open and fell forward, revealing the visage of a redheaded woman, her long, silky hair reaching her waist. Her violet eyes gained a hint of recognition as she spotted Jiraiya and Tsunade across from her, though the blonde was an unknown.

For whatever reason, though, he reminded her of Minato.

Kushina stepped forward, her body clad in Jounin-gear, and looked around her to see a massive, grassy clearing. Spotting Orochimaru, she shuddered reflexively. Sannin or not, whether or not the old man said he had his complete trust, she just felt something... Off... about the snake man.

She turned back to Tsunade and Jiraiya, seeing the incredulous and panicked looks on their faces.

Before she could say a thing, a dangerous, frosty voice cut across the clearing, sending chills down everyone's spines.

" **You shouldn't have done that.** "

The blue-haired blonde glared at Orochimaru, his eyes frosty as a thundra. He took one step forward, his whisker marks thickening ( _Wait, whisker marks?_ ). His bright blonde hair gained a jagged, feral look, while his blue eyes bled into orange-ish red, with slit pupils in place of the common ones.

An red, bubbling mass of... something... that exuded pure malice started emerging from his bellybutton. He walked forward, step by step even as everyone else was damn near floored by the sheer amount of malice and Killing Intent he had been exuding. He kept walking, his fingernails sharpening and lengthening into claws, his back hunching ever so slightly, his already sharper than average canines lengthening and sharpening further, as the red cloud of chakra covered him from head to toe, a nimbus in the shape of a somewhat anthropomorphic animal forming around the blonde, a tail and a pair of large, pointed ears over his head.

That's when the last memories hit Kushina.

"A-are you Naruto? Are you my dear baby Naruto?"

The blonde stopped mid-step, sparing a look at Kushina and she was floored by the sheer amount of pain, misery and loneliness that warred with happiness, joy and fulfillment within his eyes.

Sparing her a smile and a nod, Naruto turned back to Orochimaru, his already frosty glare going down a few more fair degrees. Kushina tried moving towards her baby, to try to hug him, hold him or in just any way make contact with him, but she found herself bound by golden chains up to her neck. Looking down as much as she could, she saw a massively complex sealing array keeping her in place, complex even by Uzumaki standards (Which meant that her Uzumaki brain just wanted to dissect and understand it) which meant that her Naruto had become an accomplished seal master.

That knowledge brought a flare of pride and satisfaction to her heart.

Orochimaru, on the other hand, felt only fear and terror as the blonde kept moving towards him.

He was banking on the blonde's hesitance to act against his revived parents, and would have summoned Minato had he not sealed himself within the stomach of the Shinigami, but the blonde simply ignored all of his plans, once again, and immobilized his mother with no hesitation.

Then, in an instant, the bestial Naruto had clenched his hand around Orochimaru's head, dragging him a fair few meters while grinding him against the ground, before hefting him up and slamming him back to the ground head-first.

His chakra tail wrapped around Orochimaru's throat, lifting the missing nin and strangling him even as he received intense chakra burns. Looking the blonde in the eye, Orochimaru saw only his own death, and that was something that terrified him more than anything else.

Then, Orochimaru felt himself be speared through, and looking down at himself, he saw a thick chain, each of it's links as thick as an Akimichi's thigh, it's colour blue and with serrated spikes protruding from said links, pierced through his gut.

His blood was flowing down his clothes and falling on the ground, pooling on them.

Looking at the source of the chain, he saw it emerging from the blonde brat's back. Looking back at the brat's face, he was met by a pair of Sharingan, a straight-edged, slanted four-pointed star intersected by three elipses meeting together to form a triangle.

" **Tsukuyomi. (Moon Reader)** "

 _ **-Within Orochimaru's mind-**_

Orochimaru found himself in a world with a twisted colour scheme. The sky was black, with red clouds and a red moon, the ground was red, and the rest of the world a massive empty wasteland. He ran around, trying to find anything, anyone to tell him what happened to the world. Why was the sky weird? Why was the earth weird?

The young boy found himself making his way into one of the training fields of Konoha, finding himself alone except for the trees, the lake and the training posts.

Heading towards the also oddly-coloured black lake, the visage of a pale, 13 year old child with purple markings around his eyes stared back at him. A pair of coloured eyes, that he knew to be yellow despite the lack of colours other than red and black in the world, a serpentine mouth and a thin, lithe body.

A sound behind him had him startled and turning around, seeing the visage of an equally 13-year-old Tsunade, which brought him a high level of relief.

"Oh god, Tsunade-chan! Thank Kami! Can you explain what happened to all the colours?"

Tsunade shot him a look of disgust mixed with bemusement, before answering.

"What the hell are you talking about? Did your stupidity finally rot your brains, Orochi-baka!?"

Orochimaru took half a step back as if slapped, before an adult Hiruzen and a 13 year old Jiraiya landed on the training field. Running towards Hiruzen, Orochimaru turn him a pleading look as he spoke.

"Sensei! The world is all weird and Tsunade is not acting like herself! She called me an idiot!"

Hiruzen shot him an annoyed look before answering in a slow tone.

"That is because you were the deadlast of your class, Orochimaru. Do you understand the meaning of dead last? You're useless, nigh worthless. You lucked out to get into this squad, but here you're little more than cannon fodder. Unlike your genius of a classmate Jiraiya here."

Jiraiya sneered at him as well, before speaking in a conceited tone.

"Get your head on straight, Dobe. I won't let you slow me down!"

Once again, Orochimaru reared back as if slapped, before he started stuttering out.

"B-b-but I was a genius, a-and you were the D-Dobe, and I was Sensei's favorite!"

Hiruzen sneered at him, Tsunade and Jiraiya flanking him and wearing disgusted and ocking looks, respectively, aimed at him.

Hiruzen was the one who spoke.

"You? My favorite? Why would I even like a stupid, moronic child like you? You have nothing even remotely positive or redeeming about yourself. You're just another useless, powerless moron. You have no talent, no intelligence, won't even put in the hard work and are only good enough to get yourself killed. No, you know what, letting you die on the field is too late."

Hiruzen tossed a Tanto at the now crying Orochimaru's feet. Said child looked up at Hiruzen, meeting a cold pair of eyes, the disappointment and disgust pouring off of the older man as he spoke.

"Commit Seppuku right now and spare me, you and your village of the shame and embarrassment."

Sobbing, Orochimaru gingerly picked up the sharp blade, poising it at his stomach before jabbing the tip in, before dragging it to the side and cuttin his stomach open.

He looked up at Hiruzen, seeing him hefting the katana and ready to cut off his head. As the blade sang through the air, the memories of the good times with the team rushed through his head.

The times his sensei gave him a proud look for his achievements, the times his teammate Tsunade praised his genius and brilliance, the odd rivalry he had with Jiraiya, with the two grudgingly respecting eachother, before darkness met him.

Blinking his eyes open, Orochimaru found himself back in the clearing, only for the process to repeat itself, again and again, the memories of the good times with his team, the life-threatening battles they conquered only through teamwork, the times they saved eachother's lives, how their sensei looked at them full of pride and happiness...

 _ **-Outside the Tsukuyomi-**_

3 seconds later, Orochimaru regained his senses. As soon as he met Naruto's eyes, he started speaking, tears streaming down his regretful eyes.

"I'm sor-"

" **Amaterasu.** "

In an instant, the black flames engulfed and completely consumed the snake sannin, permanently ending him.

Stepping back, Naruto ambled towards Kushina, his vision blurring before he passed out, the chakra shroud vanishing completely.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 _ **Scene! Holy shit that was crazy! Did you guys just read that? Oh my god!**_

 _ **Kushina's back! Orochimaru's dead, as is Kimimaro! And Naruto summons panthers!**_

 _ **What else is going to happen? Stick around and find out!**_

 _ **As always, this is FrancoGamerxz, saying "Please leave a Review, favorite and follow".**_

 _ **Ja ne!**_


	27. Chapter 27: Locks, keys and jungle rules

**Not mine, Masashi's.**

 **Please leave a Review, Favorite and/or follow!**

 **Drip**

 **Drip**

 **Drip**

"You know, getting back here is pretty depressing. Reminders of dark days, and all that."

" **Well, at least you only have to be here once in a while. I live here.** "

"You know that I'd like nothing better than to make sure you weren't confined to this place. Both for your comfort, and for my state of mind."

Naruto was, of course, talking about the sewer he was currently in. His conversation partner was a fox locked behind a massive gate with a piece of paper with "Seal" written on it.

Naruto was inside the area connecting his consciousness to the Kyuubi's. The area was created gradually by the seal as Naruto grew up, latching onto the first organized state of his conscious mind and shaping itself in that likeness.

Unfortunately, those were the days where Naruto lived a miserable life, before he met Shisui, and Itachi, and Hinata, and everyone else other than the old man and the Ichirakus. Knowing that at some point his mind was this bad was honestly depressing.

But worse was the knowledge that while he only came here once in a while, his tenant spent their entire time confined to that space, looking at the walls and bars, with the occasional memory floating in.

"The worst part is that the seal is so tight that I can't even try to change this place."

" **I'd think you would be preoccupied with the seal being so tight you can barely use my power without barely dying?** "

Naruto scowled at the other speaker at that.

"Don't make these kinds of jokes. You know that I see you as more than just a chakra battery. Plus, I'm plenty strong on my own, though I do recognize it's utility, so far I haven't needed to borrow your strength."

" **Then explain how you're here right now.** "

"You didn't see it, but Orochimaru did something... Bad. It made me very, _very_ angry, and I started absentmindedly forcing your power out. If I were in a right state of mind, I'd probably not be in here right now. You'd have to wait until I fell asleep for a visit."

" **Mind me asking what was so bad that he did for you to lose control of yourself like that?** "

Naruto's fists clenched at that, a shockwave spreading throughout the sealscape before he took a deep breath, calming himself.

He hadn't noticed it, but his tenant had, that his Sharingan had triggered itself at the last level, Eternal Mangekyo.

"Orochimaru summoned my mom from the dead to fight against me."

At the mention of Naruto's mom, his tenant's lips pursed, the eyes tightening in angry rememberance.

"Yeah, I know, you don't like her much. I wouldn't care for her too if I were you, chaining me to a huge rock and claiming my chakra as rent for a place I didn't even want to live in in the first place. I can't fault you for that, but... It's my mom, you know."

Letting out a sigh, which translated as a huge gust of warm wind ruffling Naruto's mental representation's hair and clothes, the Kyuubi relaxed it's head on top of it's paws.

" **Yeah, I do. I... If someone somehow managed to do that with my father... I know that I'd get pretty pissed.** "

Naruto shot the Kyuubi a grateful look, before walking up to the bars keeping it caged in. Naruto reached out to touch the fox, only for a repulsive barrier to stop his hand.

Dropping his hand with a sigh, Naruto focused on the sealing tag, glaring at it as if it would cause it to spontaneously combust.

" **You know, glaring at it won't do you much good.** "

"Yeah, but it's better than nothing. You shouldn't be forced to live here, it's not right!"

" **...Wait a second. That Jean woman, the one that helped us meet... She did something and I saw some memories pass by here. There was a memory about a regeneration jutsu, and I know you have enough chakra to pull it off. You could use that Shinigami mask thing from the Uzumaki shrine that you told me about and release your dad from the Shinigami's stomach, he'd know how to loosen this lock.** "

Naruto grimaced slightly at that, both from not having told his tenant that he'd have to basically commit seppuku ( _Though he'd recover it'd still hurt like a bitch_ ), which while he was completely on board with to help them, his tenant itself would greatly oppose to this; and from what he theorized the effects would be.

He decided to keep the first information away from the Kyuubi, focusing on his theory.

"Well, the Shiki Fuujin was what sealed your yin part into my dad, and empowered the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki to the point where it's this tight. If I undid the Shiki Fuujin, the seal holding your Yin part in my dad would break and it would try to seek you out. And while the power of the shinigami that helps keep the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki would vanish, it already accomplished it's task of tightening the seal to ludicrous levels. Your Yin part would try to rubberband towards you, and forcefully slam into the seal. It would probably kill the both of us. That's the only reason I haven't done that." ' _Well, the only one I'll tell you anyway, you goddamn worrywart._ '

" **Fucking great! I'm trapped behind a cage in a sewer under lock and key, and the prison itself is harsher than my warden!** "

"Wait a second... Lock and Key... This seal, the part about this modified Hakke no Fuuin Shiki that I managed to study and reverse-engineer suggested there to be a key to fully open it... I could find the key, and then release your Yin chakra and my dead from the Shinigami's stomach, and then you'd be complete and free from this place!"

" **That sounds likely. So, how are you going to find the key? Do you know anyone your father would have entrusted it to?** "

At that question, Naruto's face changed into a scowl.

"Yes... The pervert. I don't want to really have anything to do with him, you know."

" **Well, you don't really have to. You could always just let me rot behind these gates for the rest of your Biologically immortal life. No big deal.** "

' _You women really don't play fair..._ '

"Fine, Kei-chan. I'll talk to the pervert about it."

The gigantic fox grinned winningly at Naruto, getting a grunt out of him.

" **Thanks, Naruto! Now it seems like you're waking up...** "

Her tone became a bit sad at that, as Naruto started slowly vanishing from his feet up. The blonde turned towards the fox, giving it a bittersweet smile.

"Sorry, but I've gotta go now. I'll meet you later, and I'll try to figure out this key."

" **No need to force things to hurry up, Naruto. And don't let yourself become** _ **too**_ **Uchiha, the eyes are enough, you don't need to learn '** _ **Hn'ish**_ **'.** "

Kei's rueful grin was the last thing Naruto saw before he vanished from the sealscape. As soon as Naruto was gone, Kei laid her head back on her front paws, her claws making doodles of hearts on the inside of her cage's bars even as she murmured.

" _ **Don't get yourself killed, you lovable, reckless Idiot.**_ "

 _ **-Outside the seal-**_

There are two types of people in the world. Those who wake up gradually, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as they regain their bearings and remember who they are as they go; and those who just snap into consciousness, one second being asleep, the next being fully awake. Naruto was part of the second group of people.

Which is why Tsunade, Shizune and a chained down Kushina got the shit scared out of them when his eyes snapped open, roving around relentlessly.

As soon as his eyes met Shizune, Naruto relaxed, a wide smile spreading across his face. Said smile turned into a teasing grin as he spoke.

"After waking up seeing the back of your head for a whole week, seeing your face first thing in the morning feels kind of weird, y'know."

Shizune blushed at that even as Tsunade gained a smirk of her own.

A scream from a female who was neither Shizune nor Tsunade broke the mood.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN? SHIZUNE, DID YOU CORRUPT MY DEAR SOCHI?"

Taking a deep breath, Naruto turned around on his back, feeling the grass under him that had been charred by Kei's chakra cracking as he did, before he faced his red-headed mother.

He looked her up and down, his eyes seemingly weighing and measuring her, before he let out a tired, resigned sigh.

"Shit, I've gone Oedipal."

Kushina gained a quizzical look at that, while Tsunade and Shizune shared understanding, if somewhat flushed looks. The still chained up redhead spoke up at that.

"Umm, Sochi, what is this 'Oedipal' thing? Is it a friend you sorta hate, like an odious pal? Because back in my days, we called those frenemies. I myself had a few..."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, bouncing to his feet so suddenly that Kushina's speech got interrupted, before he snapped his fingers, causing the sealing array glowing under her to vanish alongside the golden chains.

"It means that I've got a mother complex. Y'know, find my mother completely hot? Relationship material, and the sort."

Kushina gaped openly at that, even as Tsunade and Shizune slowly slunk away, not wanting to get pulled into the clusterfuck so soon. Jiraiya had left the clearing a long time ago ( _And the man still didn't understand why Naruto wouldn't give him a chance_ ), so now Naruto had the time and freedom to speak to his revived mother.

Kushina managed to speak up at that, in a somewhat outraged, though mostly surprised tone.

"That's... You shouldn't... It's wrong!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm your mother!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, before he started speaking.

"No, you're not my mom really. Not meant to hurt or offend, but you didn't raise me. I never had a constant, stable mother figure in my life. The only one I really had was a prostitute that died like, 3 months after we first connected."

Kushina gasped at that, covering her mouth with her hands even as tears filled her eyes.

"Sochi..."

Naruto waved his hand nonchallantly, as if it were no big deal.

"Don't worry, that's in the past and I got over it. But really, aside from the fact that my first and only mother figure was a _prostitute_ , there's also the fact that I had no-one else behave in a motherly fashion towards me, so I've never known how it felt to have a conventional mother. I _do_ feel a Kinship for you and Minato, and I intellectually recognize you as my parents, and even at some intellectual level I feel like connecting with you, but... I've never known how to connect to females in a particularly platonic manner. I automatically defaulted to seeing them as potential romantic partners, because that was the only way I used to see women express love for men in a way that I understood.

Add to that the fact that I read your diary when I first got acess to the estate..."

Kushina blushed at that, pulling a smirk from Naruto's face.

"Yes, even the entry about that one move with the stool, the banana, peanut butter and a tub of vaseline. I tried that one out with my girlfriend by the way, and it totally works." 

Kushina blushed heavily at that, drool coming out of the corner of her mouth as she thought about the possibilities. If that one worked, then the one with the gauze and the mackerel... No! She shouldn't get sidetracked! Her son sees her as a romantic interest! That's bad!... Right?

"But Sochi, I gave birth to you! You're flesh from my flesh, blood from my blood!"

"Err... Not really. Right now, you're neither flesh nor blood. You're like, a weird buildup of oddly resistant paper held together by chakra, your soul, ductape and prayer. No flesh and blood. And after I revive you, You'll be returned to a body that while functionally similar to your original one, is going to be different than that.

Kind of like that thing about replacing everything about a ship except for one board. Is it the same ship, or is it a different ship? The one board is your soul, your consciousness. The 'everything else' ranges from your skin and hair cells to your DNA. You'll be more like a somewhat distant relative reminiscent of my mother.

And the fact that you never got to raise me means that you don't really see me as your son. You see the blonde, baby Naruto as your child. Not me."

Kushina sighed despondently at that. She was as headstrong as any other Uzumaki, but Naruto hit all the right points logic-wise. But then, something he said stuck out to her.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN AFTER YOU REVIVE ME!?"

Naruto winced at the loud volume, rubbing at his sensitive ears.

"I meant exactly that. I know about a jutsu that can bring the dead back to life, but it needs preparation. Usually it only works for the recently dead, but the ' **Edo Tensei** ' is a workaround for that condition. I wouldn't have used this method because honestly, stealing from the Shinigami is stupidity, but since it was Orochimaru who did it and not me... Eh."

Naruto shrugged nonchallantly, causing a sweatdrop to manifest itself on Kushina's forehead, before she decided to revisit another subject.

"You said that your only female figure in your life was a prostitute? How'd that come to happen?"

"I said that the only remotely motherly figure I've ever had was a prostitute who ended up killing herself. There's a difference. And about how that came to happen... Well, I've been living in the red light district all on my own since I was six."

"How? Why?"

"Most of the villagers dislike me because of my tenant. By the way, she really doesn't like you. Chaining her up to a floating rock and treating her like a talking battery pack? Dick move, mom."

"T-they know? Why? One of the stipulations Mito-Sama made for me to be moved to Konoha was for my status to be kept under wraps, to keep away the animosity from the ignorant!"

Naruto shrugged at that.

"Dad asked the old man in his dying breath to have the villagers see me as their saviour. The old man told them of how 'The fourth sacrificed himself to seal the rampaging Kyuubi into me', but he neglected to tell them of my heritage, fear of Iwa's reaction and so on and so forth. Instead of seeing me as the fleshy shield between them and the fox that almost destroyed them entirely, they decided that I was the fox itself. My life was pretty shit at first, y'know. But hey, I'm better now, so who cares?"

Kushina couldn't hold her tears back any further, pulling Naruto into a tight hug. While Kushina simply seeked to console both Naruto, for the hard life he lived, and herself for dying and leaving her son to live this life, Naruto could only think about one thing.

' _Don't pop one, don't pop one, for the love of all that's holy don'- Shit._ '

Kushina jumped back from the hug as if she had been burnt, her eyes widening as she asked incredulously.

"W-what the hell was that?"

Rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile, Naruto answered.

"That was Naruto Jr."

"Didn't feel much like a _Junior_ to me-!"

Kushina had to cover her mouth after the unexpected outburst. Her mouth ran faster than her mind, and left her in an awkward situation. Worst of all, Naruto seemed to enjoy the situation and was giving her a massive smirk.

Naruto's smirk turned to a frown as he turned pensive.

"As much as I'd love to keep listening to you flattering my junk, we need to return to Konoha. The old man is in a comma right now and me and Jiraiya came here to ask for her help."

Kushina's eyes widened at that.

"Speaking of Jiraiya, where the hell was he while you were suffering at the village?"

Her stern tone would've had others cringing if they heard it, it was the irate tone an Uzumaki used when seeing someone making their precious people suffer. Naruto, instead of cringing, was gleeful to the extreme ( _on the inside, of course, it wouldn't do for her anger to turn to him_ ). Playing it cool, Naruto answered in a nonchallant tone, keeping the mirth out of his tone.

"As far as I'm aware, whoring and perving his way through the elemental nations. Even when I was kicked away from the orphanage, while the academy teachers sabotaged me, and while the villagers pointed and whispered, marking me as a social outcast and a pariah. Hell, he probably was balls-deep in a sexual worker while I was being beat up during my birthday."

The sheer killing intent emanating from Kushina had Tsunade and Shizune wanting to bolt, and Naruto gleefully cackling with delight.

Jiraiya chose that moment to Shunshin in, and before he could say a word he had Kushina's foot planted so firmly onto his crotch that he could probably taste his testicles.

He whimpered in pain as he started falling back, but Kushina grabbed his collar and started laying a proper smackdown on the pervert.

Naruto was awed. While the beating he gave Jiraiya was an example of how to channel cold anger, Kushina's was a veritable volcano exploding.

10 seconds in, and Jiraiya was begging for her to stop.

35 seconds in, and Tsunade and Shizune were sharing horrified looks.

1 minute in, and Naruto was munching on a bag of popcorn.

Kushina then pulled the beaten and bloody Jiraiya up to eye level with her, her dangerous gaze meeting his as she hissed dangerously.

"Me and Minato trusted you to be there for Naruto, and you were out there doing fuck all while he suffered. It's your fault my son is the type of deviant to try to woo his own mother. Give me one reason, one good reason not to kill you right now."

Naruto was the one to speak up, surprising everyone.

"He's the only one who probably knows about the key."

Jiraiya's mostly glassy, fogged-up eyes sharpened at that. Kushina turned a questioning look at Naruto, prompting him to speak further.

"Dad layered the Hakke no Fuuin Shiki with a Shiki Fuujin. Locked that bitch up tighter than a Hyuuga's ass pre-stick lodging. He crafted the key afterwards and probably entrusted it to the toads for safekeeping, seen as only gamabunta was present at the sealing.

Jiraiya is currently the only toad summoner, so I'll need him to retrieve the key and open my seal."

They all turned incredulous looks upon Naruto, who shrugged them off.

"What? You guys saw what happens when I try to use the Fox's power with the seal this tight. If I try to go any further I might just die." ' _Feels scummy having to rever to Kei-chan like this, even if it is to help her._ '

Tsunade spoke up at that.

"But open the cage? Won't this release the fox?"

"Nope. the seal might be open, but it'll still exist as an extradimentional space connected to my chakra pool. I'll just use these" He said before activating his sharingan at 3 tomoe level "To keep it calm and pacified."

Jiraiya, having managed to regain his bearings, spoke up at that.

"Naruto, I can't give you the key. I don't think that you're mature enough to fully access the power of the Kyuubi."

Naruto glared at Jiraiya at that.

"And who the fuck are you to decide this? My maturity or otherwise is none of your business. Just give me the goddamn key so that I don't kill myself, then we go our separate ways and I never have to deal with you again."

"See, that's what I'm talking about. If you can't even forgive a person who's willing to make amends, then you don't deserve the power yet. When you mature a bit and become more forgiving, then you'll gain access to the fox's power, and fulfill the prophecy."

"So you're saying that because I don't forgive a lecherous, child-abandoning oathbreaker for making me live a lonely childhood when he promised not to, you'll directly hold my life hostage? And what the fuck is this prophecy business you're talking about?"

"There's a prophecy, Naruto. The toads foretold of the son of two great people who would be taught by me that would end up either bringing peace to the shinobi world, or destroying it, using great power. If you can't even look within your heart to forgive, then how can you save the world?"

Naruto took a deep breath, then another. He was completely calm, he was absolutely in control, he was a boulder that the river moved around...

"You Mother*&$#, son of a &/$)# (!*`ª^! I ought to *=/$& »-_º~ you in the ($&%#!"

The rest of the sentence was filled with so many expeletives that they should not be conveyed in a public website such as .

Suffice to say, Naruto said some bad things that had Jiraiya pale and criging, Tsunade gaping, Kushina blushing, and Shizune muttering ' _The human body isn't supposed to do that... Is it?_ '.

By the end of his expeletive string Naruto managed to calm down.

"THOSE FUCKING MORONIC FLESHSACS! AND YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF HUMAN FILTH!"

Or not.

"HOW DARE THE IRRESPONSIBLE, FLY-SWALLOWING FOOLS!"

Jiraiya, understanding who he was refering to, spoke up.

"Don't say that about the toads! They're wiser in a single toe than you'll ever be even in 70 years!"

"Well they're not fucking wise enough not to break one of the fundamental rules of summonkind, are they?"

A cold feeling developed in the pit of Jiraiya's stomach at that, and he spoke with trepidation.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that prophecies aren't meant to be told to summoners! It's like, the number one rule! If there is a prophecy involving a current summoner, they are to be told it exists, but never informed of their contents! This rule was created because, during the warring states era, a prophecy was divulged by the bat clan to one of their summoners that almost lead to the destruction of what we know now as ' **Kaze no Kuni (Wind Country)** '! The summons council then decided on keeping the contents of any given prophecies only amongst themselves, so that no one tried to manipulate them to their own benefit!

And you, you moronic, selfish piece of shit, came back now not because you finally developed enough counsciousness to try and help your godson, but to fulfill a fucking prophecy! You know what, don't you ever fucking talk to me again. Don't speak to me, don't come near me, don't even look at me. I'll apply for a restraining order against you in the court of fire country.

I'm going to be informing my own summons of the fact that the toads divulged the contents of a prophecy. The toads are going to get lambasted by the other summons before being cast away in disgrace after all and every artifact related to the summoners of any other clans or their descendants are given to their rightful summons. I'll be getting the key, and I'm damn sure you're getting struck off the toad contract."

Looking at Tsunade, Shizune and Kushina, Naruto grunted out before speaking up.

"Let's go, please. I want to get to Konoha as soon as possible."

Like that the group moved out, with a pale, incredulous Jiraiya now knowing how much he really fucked up.

"No, wait, I forgot about something."

At Kushina's declaration, everybody turned around to face her. In an instant, Kushina had a bloody chakra chain protruding from her waist, and Jiraiya had no weight inside his briefs any longer.

Naruto could only gulp fearfully at the true face of terror, the beatifically smiling Kushina, while Tsunade applied a quick healing to Jiraiya's crotch which guaranteed that he'd never get his lost friend reattached.

 _ **-2 Weeks Later-**_

"Mhmwah..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi fought his way out of unconsciousness, managing to slowly open his heavy eyes, his dry mouth and throat making it so that his attempts at speaking came out as a dry, wheezing sound.

A straw was placed at his lips, and he drank greedily, managing to remove the dry, sandy feeling from his mouth. He turned his head slightly, seeing the blonde hair and blue eyes that belonged to one of his grandsons, the other being Konohamaru. Naruto gave the old man one of his bright, megawatt grins, his eyes conveying the same warmth they previously did, and Hiruzen couldn't help the chuckle that left his mouth even as he cried tears of relief.

Naruto's eyes were also suspiciously moist, but we aren't discussing this.

"Welcome back to the waking world, Jiji."

"It's good... To be back."

Hiruzen spoke haltingly,his throat and mouth muscles rough from disuse. Naruto smiled at him before frowning thoughtfully.

"I didn't want to have to discuss these sorts of things now that you've just awakened, but I've had a run-in with Orochimaru in Tanzaku-Gai."

Hiruzen turned serious at that, but before he couls speak, Naruto continued.

"I fought him. I managed to get to come back to the village, and... My mom was brought back by Orochimaru via ' **Edo Tensei** '. I offed snake face after that."

Hiruzen closed his eyes, a small amount of pain coursing through him as he pictured the good, young person that Orochimaru had once been.

"Other than that, my mom wants to meet up with you to discuss my childhood."

Naruto spoke up with an actual cringe now.

"I tried to calm her down but she still looked pretty pissed. As soon as you're out of the hospital, 'your ass is grass, and she's gonna stomp you', her words."

Hiruzen cringed at that as well. The Kushina rages were pretty infamous.

' _It's a sign of much things have changed that Kushina gets ressurected and I consider it normal. The Naruto effect, I guess._ '

After that, Naruto pulled back a chair and started talking to Hiruzen, reconnecting as grandparent and grandchild would.

 _ **-Summons council-**_

" _ **We are assembled here today in order to judge a breach of conduct conducted by one of the summoning clans. One of the clans here, today, have broken one of our main and most important rulings, one still fresh in our memories and history**_."

Whispers started spreading across the chambers, the various summoning clans seated in assembly-style seats based on whom they were friendly/allied/neutral towards, keeping distance between opposing clans or factions.

Fawkes, the Immortal head of the phoenix clan was the one presiding the session. His smooth, baritone voice reverberated directly within the minds of all the present representatives for the clans, including one Fukasaku, more commonly known as Pa for the other toads.

" _ **I believe that Ganthet, the Panther representative elected by the clanhead Bast, is going to expose the infraction mentioned to the by their summoner. Please, make your way to the podium, Ganthet**_."

The deep purple panther, with uniform fur and a pair of heterochromic eyes, one yellow and the other one pink, sauntered down the steps from her seat to the middle podium. Fawkes used his powers to make sure everyone heard every single one of Ganthet's words.

A somewhat gravely, husky womanly voice rang across the minds of the other representatives.

" _ **Thank you for your presence today. I asked for this meeting to be called because the panther clan summoner informed us of a breach of protocol. As we all know, any and all summoners who are at least considered for receiving the opportunity to achieve sagedom are to receive a reading, during which the wisest of said clan, or the one with the biggest connection to the spiritual world informs them of whether their future holds a prophecy or not. But, we are obligated to inform them of the fact that we cannot mention the contents of said prophecy.**_

 _ **Our summoner, like most of yours, was informed of all of this. The council, the sacred rules, the reasons why they exist. And he recognized a grave infraction. Having done so, he automatically reported it to us as is protocol, showing a great attentiveness and respect for us summons in general.**_

 _ **The infraction was the fact that the Toad summoning clan not only neglected to inform their sage of the sacred rules and the council, but they divulged the contents of a prophecy to them!**_ "

All of the other summons gasped almost in unison at that, even as Fukasaku bowed his head in acceptance.

The violation of this rule was enough to galvanize everyone, and have even the most opposed clans to agree with eachother, as proven when Akasho, the representative of the snake clan, and Kodan, representative of the mongoose clan, joined together in their hurling of insults and expeletives towards the toads, alternating between eachother in order to not wear out all of their individual good ones simultaneously.

Fawkes' voice rang through the minds of all others.

" _ **Silence, people! Silence!**_ "

As soon as the chambers were quiet, though everyone aimed eyes of animosity towards the toads, Fawkes continued.

" _ **This is a very grave accusation leveled against you and your clan, Fukasaku. Is it true?**_ "

Knowing that he could do nothing more to salvage the situation, Fukasaku could only nod.

The shouting commenced anew, but Fawkes once again called for silence, stilling the room.

" _ **Now that we have the knowledge of what happened, and an admission of guilt, we shall be administering punishment. The toad clan shall have it's summoner rights revoked for 3 millenia, as have the bats. Your summoning contract shall be burnt, only to be reborn from it's ashes on the end of your punishment. Every and all items, objects, baubles and personal effects that are either property, either physical and in the rules of man, or in the rules of us summons, shall be passed towards their own summoning clans to be given to them by said clan. The toad clan shall be surrendering half of their territory and techniques to the clan who first brought this rule breakage to light.**_

 _ **The Panther clan shall be allowed to choose which part of the toad territory they desire to take, and the toads shall be forced to vacate from it in 5 sunrises. The toad clans shall be known, now and forever, as a clan of oathbreakers, a denomination that will forever stay in theirs, and ours, memories. So I have said, so it is to be done.**_ "

Fukasaku could only shake his head at that. He had warned that old fool Gamamaru against telling Jiraiya of the prophecy, that it was against the rules, but even he himself fell for his opium-fueled ramblings and let Jiraiya's head be filled with fluff, giving him a surge of arrogance and self-importance in his belief that he would, no doubt, change the world.

And change the world he did. For the toads, negatively. For the panthers, positively. For the rest, who knows? The results of Jiraiya's actions will only make themselves known in the future.

But for now, the toads will live in the knowledge that they had so easily broken one of their base tenets, broken the oath given to the council, and that they would no longer have any summoners. All of their previous summoner's achievements, lost, alongside the prestige they brought to the toad summons clan.

And everything because a white-haired moron couldn't be arsed to think about anything other than tits, asses and prophecies.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! And next chapter, the aftermath. Kushina meets up with Hiruzen, the Konoha council assembles with the presence of the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan for the first time in a long while, Naruto's various girlfriends, potential girlfriends and fuckbuddies are intoduced to Kushina, and Hinata and the Hyuuga council have a falling out. Other than that, we learn what the second favor Naruto wanted from Tsunade was.**

 **For now, we stay with this. If you want to see those things happen, and more, stick around for the next chapter.**

 **FrancoGamerxz says "Please leave a review, favorite and follow"! Ja ne!**


	28. Chapter 28: Locks, Keys and conspiracies

**Not mine, Masashi's.**

 **Enjoy!**

 _ **Flashback**_

 _ **-Tanzaku Gai, Tsunade and Shizune's hotel room-**_

 _"I need your blood, baa-... Y'know, feels odd calling you granny after I fucked you good. I'll just go with Tsunade-chan. Or maybe Tsu-chan. Well, whatever. Tsu-chan, I need your blood."_

 _Tsunade narrowed her eyes even as she stepped into her pants, he breasts still swaying freely and trying their best to attact Naruto's attention._

 _"Why do you need my blood, Bra- Naruto-kun?"_

 _Naruto shrugged nonchallantly at that._

 _"To trigger my Senju cells."_

 _"Senju cells?"_

 _Naruto nodded at that._

 _"Yup. My mom's mom was an Uzumaki, but my mom's dead was a Senju who died shortly after mom was conceived. Senju Itama I believe. My Senju blood was a bit smothered by the Uzumaki blood initially, and then the added Sharingan. I want to awaken them in order to see if I manage to gain the wood release, and to check out a rumour I heard about the Sharingan."_

 _Tsunade gaped opeenly at that._

 _"You could die! Senju blood is too potent to just play around with! What, are you just going to up and shoot yourself up with it?"_

 _Naruto scowled at that._

 _"Hell no, Tsunade. I'll have my best people working on it before it can be integrated into my body. I'm not Orochimaru, I don't just do shit arbitrarily and then go through test subjects, fixing shit up as it goes."_

 _Naruto pulled out a few syringes and a few tags, motioning for Tsunade to move towards him, her breasts still bare and swaying deliciously teasingly._

 _Shizune, for her part, just watched the drama ensue from her half-cheek seat on the couch. Her soreness prevented her from sitting down properly._

 _Tsunade got in front of Naruto, holding her arm out in order for him to draw blood from. To her surprise, Naruto pushed his face into her chest and started nipping at her breasts, before giving her nipple a flick with the tip of his tongue. As Tsunade let out a moan, Naruto jabbed the Syringe into her arm and drew the blood._

 _Keeping the needle in, he simply changed syringes and drained her._

 _3 Syringes later and Naruto had removed the needle, before placing a tag on Tsunade's back, drawing some of her chakra. He repeated this process, drawing small amounts of her chakra into each of the tags, before putting his materials aside._

 _That being done, Naruto jumped on top of Tsunade, knocking her back into the carpeted floor before nipping at her neck, drawing a mewl from her._

 _Shizune felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist from behind her, and she let out a whine._

 _"Naruto, I'm too sore!"_

 _"False, you know Iryojutsu, you can alleviate the soreness. Or, you could always let me use the other hole. I know you did nothing but squeal louder when I popped my thumb in..."_

 _Shizune shuddered as she felt her gash heating up at the. The image of her sensei and this same young man making sweet music on the room floor wasn't really helping her resolve much. When Naruto's hand went down her spine, pressing tension knots loose along the way, she simply melted into his embrace._

 _Later that morning, Jiraiya would be witness to a dopey-faced Shizune, a glowing Tsunade, and a Smirking Naruto._

 _ **Flashback, End**_

 _ **-Hokage's office-**_

"Hiruzen. Give me one reason, one good reason not to kick the crap out of your ass right now."

The fact that Kushina said this while holding a chair in her hand did nothing to assuage Hiruzen's worries.

"Because I'm an old man?"

"You're young enough to still be in office, try again."

"Because I'm the hokage and you'll get in trouble?"

Kushina smirked at that.

"I'm dead. You can't demerit me, you can't black mark my record nor can you brand me a missing nin. You're just giving me more and more reasons to beat the hell out of you."

Naruto spoke up at that.

"Mom, just chill out. The old man made some mistakes, but he didn't try to actively fuck with me. It was more a case of him being stupidly naïve. Or naïvely stupid. whichever works."

Hiruzen curled up in a corner, a dark cloud over his head as he doodled in the ground with a stick.

A knock to the door had the old man moving back to his chair so fast you'd think he Hiraishin'ed there, before his secretary walked in.

"Hokage-sama, a council meeting has been called by the advisors, so your presence is required."

Giving her message, the secretary pulled her head back out of the door.

"Motherfuckers! Once again, they call for a council meeting and don't send summons to the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan! No, this kind of shit won't stand!"

Hiruzen sighed at that, while Kushina nodded resolutely.

"You're right, Sochi. Let's go teach them a lesson. I still know where my pranking supplies are stashed, I checked as soon as I arrived, so let's go on a pranking spree."

Hiruzen's eyes shone with horror at that notion. The two infamous Uzumaki pranksters teaming up? Konoha wouldn't be left standing at the end of the day!

Naruto's eyes shone with unrestrained glee.

"That sounds like a great idea, Mom. But, first, tell me, how many people have seen you so far?"

"Other than Tsunade and Shizune, and the old man here, no one. I've been transiting under various Henge and spending most of my time in the estate, why?"

"I believe the announcement of your presence and your temporary state of undeath should be made for the council in general to hear."

The redhead and the blonde shared mischievous grins, even as Hiruzen rubbed his head.

' _Shit, I can't keep dealing with this kind of crap. I'm way too fucking old for this. Maybe I'll ask Tsunade to replace me. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do._ '

The other two people in the room, unaware of the old man's thoughts, only kept scheming.

 _ **-Council Chambers-**_

The doors to the council chambers opened, allowing the entrance of the Hokage. After the Hokage entered, the figure of an infamous blonde strode into the room easily enough, a figure completely covered in a black cloak following after him.

Nagatsuki Kanzushi, the head of a farming company, was the one to speak up.

"What is the meaning of this? Why is the de- _boy_ present during a council meeting? Who is this cloaked person? What is the meaning of this, Hokage-sama!?"

Hiruzen fixed his steely gaze on the man, instantly shutting him up before he spoke up in a harsh tone.

"I should be the one asking for the meaning of this. As soon as I'm down for the count, you think you can simply go and revoke Tsunade's travelling rights? You think you can simply ignore the presence of another clan in Konoha and make decisions without their input?"

At that, Naruto walked towards the side of the Shinobi council, sitting down in one of the empty seats with a swirl emblazoned on it, the black cloaked figure standing behind him.

The same civillian that had spoke at first stuttered out.

"S-so he really is..."

" **Yes, he really is the son of Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage, and Uzumaki Kushina, the red death of Konoha, and the red-hot Habanero.** "

Everyone turned to the cloaked figure, with Koharu sneering as she spoke.

"And how would you happen to know this?"

The figure started chuckling ominously, the chuckling turning into outright cackling that left everyone unnerved, and on edge.

" **I should know better than any other. After all...** "

Divesting itself of it's cloak, the figure was revealed to be a violet-eyed redhead, her hair loose and reaching her waist, while her body was clad in standard chunin gear.

"I did give birth to my own son."

Everyone on the civillian council was speechless, while Nara Shikaku interjected.

"Regardless of his parentage, Uzumaki-san has not been recognized as a member of the council as far as we are aware."

Naruto scowled at that, pulling out a piece of parchment sporting the Daimiyo's stamp.

"I got recognized as clanhead by the Daimiyo the day after Orochimaru invaded. You should have gotten that piece of correspondence in the same day, or the day after. It was cathegorized as high priority after all, handling given only to the hokage or his stand-in in case of disabling situations."

As one, everyone turned towards the advisors, prompting Homura to raise his hands.

"Don't look at me, with Danzo's absence, and we still need to discuss this, I was forced to take care of the military matters related to the invasion alongside my usual duties alongside the council. Koharu worked the administrative side of things, she should've been the one to get the notice and warn us."

As one, all the shinobi turned their eyes towards Koharu, yet the woman didn't even falter. If you had to give her credit for something, it was the fact that her ugly scowl did not change even under scrutiny.

Hiruzen sighed, counting down from 10 before speaking up.

"Councilwoman Koharu, please give me a valid reason as to why the council was not informed of the Daimiyo's ruling in regards to the headship of the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan."

"Simple. Because the _boy_ does not deserve to be the leader of nothing. He doesn't deserve to be anything special."

Homura was the one to speak up at that.

"For Kami's sake, woman! What is this grudge you hold against this child!?"

Koharu glared at Homura, before answering acidly.

"Do not talk to me like that, you hypocrite. Your actions were just as bad as my own."

Homura answered with a scowl of his own.

"I did what I did in order to secure Konoha a loyal, powerful shinobi. Even if my methods were not the most correct, it was never anything personal. If you don't seem to remember, as soon as the boy starting showing good results during shinobi service, I left him alone, unlike what you and Danzo wanted! Speaking of which, where the fuck is the old cripple?"

Hearing the elders' conversation, everyone in the room was exposed to the kind of manipulative shit that had gone on during Naruto's childhood. The shinobi council was starting to understand why the boy seemed to so hate the council of elders, and the civillian council was majoritarily kicking themselves over the fact that they had so mistreated the heir of the Uzumaki-Namikaze clans. The son of the yellow flash and red death! If he spoke up against them, they would start losing proffits like crazy! Ever since his display during exams, his popularity in the streets had been at an all-time high.

With him taking the headship of his clan, which means that the Daimiyo basically corroborated his claims to his parentage, the fact that he returned Tsunade of the Sannin to Konoha, helped heal the Hokage, killed Orochimaru and the presence of his revived mother meant that right now, Naruto was literally the single most influential figure in the village.

They had to figure out a way to gain his favour.

"I would like to formally apologize on behalf of the entirety of the civillian council for our previous indescretions, Naruto-sama, and can only promise to try and do better in regards to you in the imminent future."

Haruno Sakiri seemed way too pleased with herself for managing to shoot out this little speech, while all of the civillian representatives pasted on appropriately contrite faces, banking on him giving them a second opportunity...

"No, fuck you."

Only for their faces to fall, and the contrite looks to give way to somewhat restrained irritation, but Naruto kept speaking.

"You're not apologizing because you regret having done what you did to me, and neither are you apologizing because you saw the error in your ways in making a young child, any child, suffer. Hell, even up to 15 minutes ago I was just that boy! No, you're acting all sorry and shit because you know that if I were inclined to, I could completely fuck you all up. Not even my parents' names managed to get any remorse from you, even when you call them two of Konoha's greatest heroes.

No, for you it's all about monye and power. Well, I'll use my power and money as I see fit, and none of you will ever be seeing either of them getting anywhere remotely near you and your clans. So fuck you, today, and always."

Inuzuka Tsume stood up from her seat before she earnestly started clapping at Naruto's words.

Then, Inoichi did. Then Choza, and Shikaku, and the Hokage. To the surprise of the civillian council members, even the ever stoic Hyuuga and Aburame clanheads gave Naruto a standing ovation. In their attempt at gaining the blonde's favor, they had just revealed themselves as the greedy snakes they were to the entirety of the shinobi council. Times would be getting hard for their enterprises.

That little debacle over, and with the council re-seated, Naruto spoke up.

"Councilman Homura, you spoke about Shimura Danzo's absence, did you not?"

Homura nodded at that.

"Well, his absence isn't at all mysterious. I killed him."

Gasps rang out around the chambers, before Koharu shrieked out.

"ANBU! APPREHEND THE BOY FOR THE MURDER OF A VILLAGE ELDER!"

"ANY OF MY ANBU EVEN TOUCH NARUTO AND THEY'LL BE DOING D-RANKS FOR THEIR REST OF THEIR LIVES!"

Koharu gave Hiruzen an incredulous look before speaking.

"Hiru- Hokage-sama! He just admited to having killed an Elder, are you going to allow your favoritism towards the boy excuse this crime?"

Hiruzen shook his head.

"No, t'is not favoritism. I simply intend to listen to the reasoning behind Danzo's death, so that I can reach a decision of my own on whether Jounin Uzumaki is to be punished or not, and what this punishment would be."

The wording of 'Jounin Uzumaki' didn't pass by any of the people in the room, leaving Koharu seething even more. Unconcerned by that, Naruto spoke.

"I could simply say that he broke the third's law and leave it at that, but, while he did indeed break the law and was elligible for summary execution, there were more factors behind that. After all, if it were just the third's law, Councilwoman Koharu and the majority of the civillian council would be dead right now. I just happened to not give much of a shit about it, but as the head of the Uzumaki clan, I can no longer allow these sorts of infractions stand.

Well, that was a wild tangent. Ok. Why did I kill Danzo? Let me ask you a question."

As he said this, Naruto looked specifically towards the Hokage, Koharu and Homura.

"Despite what the paperwork says, we all know that Danzo kept _ROOT_ running, despite all orders against it. He said that his actions, and his _ROOT_ were working for the protection and betterment of Konoha. So I ask you.

Where in Rikudo Sennin's saggy nutsack were Danzo and his _ROOT_ during Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha?"

The eyes of the three oldest people in the room widened at that, while Naruto kept speaking.

"I can tell you where they were. Underground in their tunnels, bitching and moaning about the fact that I dismantled the majority of Orochimaru's plans. Danzo helped Orochimaru, like Orochimaru had helped him in giving him an artificial arm imbedded with the sharingan he stole from the corpses of some of the victims of the Uchiha massacre; his intention was for Orochimaru to kill Jiji over here, while Sand and Sound smacked Konoha around a bit. After Konoha was weakened, he'd show up with his _ROOT_ , take control of everything and impose himself as the Hokage.

He commited treason of the highest caliber, and for that he got executed. But I have to tell you, his face when he noticed that his plans were completely fucked up was hilarious. Imagine, the boy he saw as nothing but a mindless weapon, outwitting him so, before unearthing his ' _secret operation_ ' and simply walking into his hideout. Tickled him something fierce."

Hiruzen was honestly getting tired of these revelations. If it wasn't a thing, it was another. Wanting to move on from the subject, he spoke up.

"Now that we know what happened, I'd like to ask you why this meeting was called today. I want to get as far away from this clusterfuck as soon as possible, so hurry it up."

Homura once again took point.

"Ah yes, Hokage-sama. We'd like to discuss Tsunade's situation in the village."

"What about her situation?"

"She intends to simply leave! We can't allow her to do so! She's the granddaughter of the first, the rightful heir of Konoha! Having her outside is improper and passes the wrong image to our clients!"

Hiruzen slammed his hand on the table in irritation at that.

" **The sannin earned the traveling rights themselves, If Tsunade decides to stay or go, it is her prerrogative. Meeting fucking adjourned.** "

Like that, the satisfied shinobi council, and the terrified civillian council vacated the council chambers, leaving only Koharu and Homura behind.

"Koharu, listen. I don't know what the fuck you have against the boy, but antagonizing him and blatantly showing your animosity towards him does us no favors! You've seen how much his actions and accolades ingratiated him with the village nowadays! His service in ANBU got them behind him, his actions during the exams had the general shinobi corps interested in him, he's befriended all of the clan heirs, and his showing during the finals, and his actions against Orochimaru's invasion alongside his now revealed parentage have him ingratiated with both the majority of the civillian populace, those foolish representatives aside, the costumers, foreign dignitaries and even the leaders of other villages!

So what the fuck is your problem with the boy when he's doing so much for Konoha?"

"What's the problem with the boy!? I'll tell you what it is! It's his fault that the Kyuubi attacked! The seal on a female Jinchuuriki is at it's weakest during childbirth. Had he not been born, the fox wouldn't have broken free, and my family would've still been alive! My husband, daughters, sons, grandchildren! All of them except for one, dead! And my remaining grandchild, my dear Moegi, she's enthralled with the boy! Looks at him as a hero, a role model, when he's everything but! He's already taken almost everything away from me, and now he's taking my granddaughter as well!"

Homura gave her an incredulous look.

"Koharu, I believe this is the single most stupid thing you've ever said to me. For fuck's sake, woman, think! You speak as if he had chosen to be born! Everything that happened during that night was outside of his control! He did not request for the Kyuubi to be sealed in his mother, Mito-sama did! He did not ask his father to impregnate his mother with him, it was their choice, as it was their choice to keep the child after they were made aware! It was not his choice to have weakened Kushina's seal, it just happened! You are acting irrational, and in your irrationality, you're jeopardising our positions!

Well, Koharu, I will give you an Ultimatum. Either get your head out of your ass and put aside your animosity so that our asses don't get any more burnt than they already are, or you can stop counting on my support altogether."

Like that, Homura left the chambers, leaving an angry, though pensive, Koharu.

 _ **-Uzumaki-Namikaze estate-**_

Tensions were high in the room. Yamamoto and Hayato simply watched from a distance, sharing a few teacups with Mashiro's team, as Kushina levelled her best glare at the people in front of her.

Across from her were various different girls and women, ranging from Naruto's age range to her own.

Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Momochi Haku, Hyuuga Hinata, Fuu, Higurashi Tenten, Uzuki Yuugao, Yuhi Kurenai, Mitarashi Anko, Inuzuka Hana, Inuzuka Tsume, Kato Shizune and even Senju Tsunade sat around her son, having admitted to be his lovers.

The killing intent rolling off of her had even Tsunade and Hinata, the two most confident women in the room, sweating. Kushina spoke in a deceptively calm tone.

"So you're telling me that the lot of you hold some sort of romantic and/or physical attraction to my son, and you've either already made love him, or plan to. Is that it?"

Naruto gulped before answering weakly.

"Yes?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YES!? SOCHI, THIS IS TOO MUCH! PEOPLE NORMALLY DON'T HAVE HAREMS! AND WHAT'S WORSE, SOME OF THE WOMEN IN THIS HAREM ARE TWICE AS OLD AS YOU!"

"Well... Yeah. Here's the thing... This isn't the complete amount of potential romantic interests."

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Kushina managed to grit out in a regular volume.

"Talk."

"Well, there's Mei-chan, the Mizukage, there's Temari-chan from Suna, there're Yugito-chan, Samui-chan and Karui-chan from Kumo, and I bet there's eventually going to be someone from Iwa. These things just tend to happen to me, and you know why I am as I am."

That took the wind out of Kushina's sails, her indignation giving way to regret. She walked over the space between her and her son and his harem, and pulled Naruto into a tight hug.

"Sochi... I'm so sorry for the type of life that you've had to live through..."

Kushina then backed away as if burnt. Again.

"Sochi!"

"What!? You're the one that insists on hugging me! You know how I feel about you!"

"And have you told your... girlfriend _s_... how you feel about me?"

Hinata was the one to speak up at that.

"He has, and we understand why. Plus... Mother-son having a taste of the forbidden fruit, even as his other lovers watch..."

At that, Hinata's eyes gained a fire even as a trail of blood fell down her nose. She turned towards Naruto, clasping tightly onto his hands.

"Don't worry, my manly boyfriend! I'll help you woo your mother! Then we can do that thing you told me with the gauze, the duct tape and the mackerel!"

Naruto, Haku, Fuu and Kushina sported nosebleeds at that declaration.

Away from the drama, Hayato and Yamamoto were having a friendly conversation.

"Naru-chan really is an interesting one, isn't he, Shige-chan?"

"That he is, Hayato-Jiji. Didn't think I'd be hearing one of my disciple's girlfriends promising to help him seduce his zombie mother so they could do the Horizontal mambo. Never even thought that I'd ever have to say this sentence in my entire life."

"Well, Naru-chan reminds me a bit of Ken-chan, my old disciple, in a particular aspect. The oddest, most troublesome situations happen to just find them. Unlike Ken-chan that sometimes fought against this tendency only to get swept up by it, Naru-chan just seems to embrace his odd life and roll with it. I dare say, this is more fun."

Yamamoto nodded at that.

And the two old men kept drinking tea and trading life stories, even as Naruto and his harem had to contend with a flustered Kushina.

 _ **-2 Days later, Hyuuga Council Chambers-**_

"Hyuuga Hinata, do you know why you have been summoned to the council?"

The lavender-haired girl had her face impassive, emotionless, even as she answered.

"I would had your summons mentioned the reason. As they did not, I do not."

Hyuuga Hasahi, a decrepit old mummy, his body mostly withered by age, spoke.

"Mind your manners, girl! Show this council the respect it rightfully deserves!"

Hinata's face was impassive as she answered.

"I am showing you more respect and decency than you deserve. After all, I should not be forced to interact with the sort of people who enslave their own family."

The elders stared disapprovingly, some of them trying to cow her with their glares alone. She responded by glaring right back, the veins around her eyes bulging, and actually making the people she glared at cringe from the intensity of her glare.

Hyuuga Kaneko, a woman of 65 years of age, fully grey hair, but still sharp eyes, spoke up.

"Enough! We are here to speak about your display during the chunnin exams."

Hinata turned her gaze to Kaneko, changing from the steel-melting glare to a blank, impassive look that had the old woman fidgeting in place.

"What about my display?"

"You showed your knowledge of the ' **361 Palms** ', and consequently, all of it's inferior versions; the ' **Vacuum Palm** ', and even the ' **8 Tigrams Palm Rotation** '."

"Yes, I have, so?"

Hyuuga Nori, a 70 year old fat man, barely capable of even walking 15 feet without wheezing, spoke up at that.

"We would like to know why you never displayed these skills during any of the clan-sanctioned main house tournaments, any of the spars or during your training. We'd like to know why you hid your skills from us."

"That is none of your business. It may be a rule to be present and compete during those situations, but there are no rules stating that you have to give it your best."

The elders pursed their lips at that.

Hiashi had been watching the situation unfold from the side, and he was honestly impressed with how calm and composed Hinata was with the whole thing. Then he remembered that even if he were to tell her that, she wouldn't care, and a new jab of pain emerged from within his heart.

"I believe we have been too lenient with the Heiress. If she won't respect our clan and it's traditions out of her own free will, it is our responsibility to make sure she does."

Hinata turned her gaze at Hyuuga Kaizen, the bald 84 year old that just spoke, before narrowing her eyes at him.

"What are you implying?"

"I need not resort to implications with a whelp such as yourself! I will spell this outright. I say we either brand her with the caged bird seal and cast her to the branch family, or... Yes, we brand her younger sister. How would you feel, knowing that your actions led to your sister's enslave-Urk!"

Hinata had her hand wrapped around Kaizen's throat in the blink of an eye, squeezing tightly as she looked him straight in the eye.

"That was your biggest, and last, mistake."

With those words, she crushed the old man's neck, before dropping his limp corpse on the ground.

Before any of the other elders could move past their shock, Hinata released the full brunt of her killing intent, freezing everyone in place before speaking.

"Threaten my baby sister again, and Kaizen won't be the only one dead. I will make sure to personally go to each and every one of your rooms as you sleep, and slip a dagger between your ribs. Understood?"

The terrified elders, on the edge of heart attacks, could only give her terrified nods.

"Good. You fools were lucky I was the one in here. Kaizen threatened my sister, I killed him. Had my boyfriend heard any of you threaten me, the Hyuuga council would've become nothing but both a literal, and metaphorical, stain in the history books.

Don't fuck with me and my sister and I won't tell him of what happened here. Touch a strand of hair on her head and I'll let slip the dogs of war."

With her piece said, Hinata nodded towards the clanhead, her face still stoic, before stepping out of the council chambers.

As soon as she was out, the killing intent stopped, allowing the elders to breathe normally.

Kaneko spoke up at that, her tone terrified.

"W-we almost died just now. And her boyfriend... She's dating the Uzumaki-Namikaze boy, isn't she? He has Furinji Hayato, Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, Uzumaki Kushina, Senju Tsunade, the current Mizukage and lord knows how many other S-ranks behind him, aside from the fact that he himself is an S-rank with the knowledge of the ' **Hiraishin no Jutsu** '. It's best we leave her alone.

And the heiress... She's solid A-rank, the only one capable of matching her prowess is the current clanhead. She could simply challenge him for the dominance of the clan, yet she does not do so. She doesn't intend to simply dispose of us, or take away our authority. Live and let Live is the best measure."

The other elders nodded their agreement at that, honestly terrified of the strength that the 14 year old girl displayed, both directly; and indirectly, through her boyfriend.

 _ **-Mount Myoboku-**_

" **Jiraiya-chan, do not blame yourself for this**."

The toad sage was stone-faced, yet everyone present could see the regret in his eyes, and hear it in his voice as he spoke.

"But it is my fault! Had I not been a strongheaded fool, had I not been so hung up on the prophecy, had I taken proper care of my godson and not seen him as a way to try and fulfill a prophecy..."

Fukasaku shook his head at that.

" **No, Jiraiya-chan. You were young and impressionable when you first learnt of the prophecy. We allowed it to mold you, and shape your actions. You lived more for it than for yourself. We allowed this to happen, despite knowing of the law.**

 **I allowed the old fool Gamamaru to tell you the prophecy, listened to his opium fueled ramblings and passively alloweed him to fill your head with arrogant self-importance, and the belief that you'd change the world in a scale that no single person should be forced the responsibility of, on.**

 **Now... Now we're just reaping what we sowed. That Naruto boy's summons have already collected the key to his seal, they chose to take the half of our home with the training spikes, slabs and the oil... This, alongside the fact that they told the boy of our rules means that they intend to seriously train him as a sage. Even if it did bring us to this difficult situation in the first place, at least we were able to help the possible chosen one of prophecy.**

 **No, the hardest part will be for you, Jiraiya-chan. So many of your skills rely on toad summoning...** "

Fukasaku hefted out a sigh at that.

" **We could allow Bunta to join you as a personal summon, as not being part of the toad summons directly, but affiliated and allowed to live with us, and when you eventually passed, accept him back into the fold**."

Gamabunta blew out a cloud of smoke before speaking.

" **Sounds good to me. Jiraiya, show me your arm**."

The white haired man did so, only for Bunta to pluck one of his pipe's embers and press it onto his shoulder, pulling it back to reveal a black summoning tatto in the form of a leaping toad covering him from shoulder to wrist.

" **Add blood to that and I'll be there to aid you. Now, you have to leave. At the end of these five days, we won't be allowed to have any humans on our remaining territory**."

Jiraiya clenched his teeth in anger, before muttering.

"If only Naruto knew how to forgive-"

He was surprised by Fukasaku smacking him in the head with his stick.

" **Give it a rest, Jiraiya-boy. It was not his fault this happened, and you know this. It was our own. Do not let your anger cloud your judgement. Now, you have to leave**."

By now, tears were falling down Jiraiya's eyes. Giving a hug to Fukasaku and Shima, Jiraiya vanished in a cloud of smoke, reappearing in his own home in Konoha.

Jiraiya, now no longer the toad sage, or a sage at all; a eunuch, oathbreaker and child neglecter, could only weep bitterly at what he did to himself.

 _ **-Panther Mountain-**_

" **Naruto, we have collected the key that you requested of us from the toads earlier today. So, what do you intend to do it with?** "

Naruto looked up at Baghera, the elder panther and giver of prophecies, before answering.

"Opening a lock."

Baghera sweatdropped at the nonchalant response, while Bast and Ganthet just chuffled and chuckled in amusement.

" **No shit, Sherlock. I meant to ask which lock you would use the key to open.** "

"The seal in my stomach holding back the Yang part of the Kyuubi's chakra."

Everyone's eyes turned serious at that.

" **I see... Naruto, the Kyuubi is very powerful. Despite it being friendly with you, it might hurt you, even if accidentally. Having only it's Yang chakra, the control it holds over it's power isn't very good. The chakra could try to possess you, make you go berserk, or any other such things. You need to be very careful.** "

Naruto nodded at that, having known of that fact.

"I already have a plan in place for that."

Baghera nodded, motioning for Ganthet to deliver the rolled up scroll to Naruto, who examined it intrincately, commiting it to memory before rolling it back up and sealing it into his back pouch. Giving a bow to his summons, Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.

" **That boy... He is going to go very far.** "

Bast and Ganthet could only nod in agreement with Baghera's words, having smelled the greatness wafting off of the boy. He would not only be the most legendary of the panther summons, he'd possibly be the most legendary of all summoners. Period.

 _ **-Uzumaki-Namikaze Estate-**_

"Wait, so you finished your father's time chamber and used it to train?"

Naruto nodded in response to Kushina's question, the two of them walking down the stairs leading them to the basement. Alongside them were Shizune, Hinata and Fuu, every other girl having responsibilities to attend to at the moment.

"Yup. Except, my compression rate is stuck to a year per week. I'm working on bringing it down to a year per day, but... We'll see."

"But, wouldn't that leave you super-old?"

"Nope. With my chakra impregnating the seal, the effects of cellular decay are slowed down, and even reversed. Exposed cells are brought to their prime after a long period of exposure. It means that older people would slowly regress to their prime, and younger people would develop at the literal best their bodies could afford to. Go beyond their limits, train in ways that would normally cripple them, and then sleep it off. It is a very useful tool, Yamamoto-Jiji and Hayato-Jiji made plenty of use of my time chamber in their torture sessions.

That being said... I should have all of my girls training in here, at least once. Help them get stronger as well, that way I won't have to be worried with the Akatsuki after them. I just need to find instructors for their chosen fields, and bribe Hayato-Jiji and Yamamoto-Jiji to help them as well."

Naruto's thoughts trailed off as he reached the steel door of the chamber, opening it and allowing his company to walk in, before going in himself, taking all of Tsunade's blood and chakra samples. The 5 of them would not be seen around the village for a week.

 _ **-Kirigakure no Sato-**_

"Zabuza, you have to check this out."

Mei's tone was preoccupied, and somewhat urgent, as she called out to Zabuza. The swordsman had been talking with Mei's cute secretary, a cute brunette with a thing for strong men, when she called him into her office.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama, did you call? And honestly, if it's about Naruto again, I'll..."

"No, Zabuza. This is something very serious."

Zabuza straightened up at that, going from 'Zabuza, Mei's friend', to 'Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, borderline S-rank Kirigakure Jounin'.

"I found a hidden compartment in the desk here, it held Yagura's diary."

Zabuza looked at Mei quizzically at that.

"What worth is it now that he's been dealt with? Would it not be better to let the past lie dead?"

"You don't understand, Zabuza. I read the entries. They were very disjointed, Yagura seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Just listen to this:

' _January 4th: I woke up after various nightmares again. I keep dreaming that I'm convincing my staff to kill innocents for their bloodlines. All of those dreams are preceded by a Red eye with black comma marks in them_

 _July 18th: It happened again! I went through a blackout, and woke up weeks later. Whenever I wake up, things seem to be worse and worse! People are suffering, it seems bloodline users are being slaughtered, and all on my words, but I don't remember a thing! I may be going crazy!_

 _August 21st: These blackouts are getting bigger and bigger, my moments of sanity are ever smaller. I can't seem to do anything. This red eye is within my partner's eye as well! Whenever I try to fight against these impulses, or wake up Isobu, this man wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it shows up. He wears an orange mask with a single eye socket on it and has short, spiky black hair. He tells me to go to sleep, then I see the eye again, and then I black out. There's nothing I can do to fight him! I hope that someone stops me, no matter the cost. I can no longer bear to see the results of my weakness. The fact that I can't break free of this genjutsu killed thousands of the people I swore to love and protect. If my successor finds this, please beware of the men with the black cloaks. They are very dangerous.'_

Yagura didn't do it because he wanted to, Zabuza. He was forced to do all of those monstrocities. And the black cloaks with red clouds..."

"Akatsuki."

"Exactly. We have to tell Naruto. Arrange for a trip to Konoha. We're going under the pretense of trying to foster better relations with leaf. We need to make sure he knows this."

Zabuza nodded, before disappearing in a swirl of water, arranging everything with Ao and Chojuro.

Mei sat down at the Mizukage's chair, her hand caressing the diary as she reminisced about her childhood, her genin team alongside Zabuza and Yagura. Their Jounin-sensei had been killed by Kisame when the shark man defected, and they had somewhat drifted apart after that. Still, to know that one of your best friends had not turned on you and your kind out of sheer malice, but because he was forced to...

She'd make this masked man pay. That was a promise!

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Naruto gets the key, the toads get shafted, Jiraiya is miserable and the experiment is progressing. Naruto has decided to seduce his mother, and Hinata has decided to help. Will Kushina be able to resist her son's advances and teach him how it truly feels to have a mother, or will she succumb to Naruto's charisma and join his harem?**

 **Mei and Zabuza find Yagura's diary, and they have to give Naruto a warning!**

 **Obito, it seems people are onto your shit. You should beware, as Naruto has the tendency to thwart evil plots, even unknowingly.**

 **Please leave a review, favorite and/or follow.**

 **That being said, I'm FrancoGamerxz. Ja ne!**


	29. Chapter 29: Eyeballs and Hax

**Not mine, Msashi's.**

 _ **-?-**_

"Well, this is awkward."

" **Indeed.** "

6 months into the time compression, and Naruto finally had the Senju blood injected into him. Things seemed to be going pretty well, he seemed to be integrating properly with the genes, so he decided to use the key to open the seal.

Kushina, being a seal mistress, and dead, was the one closest to Naruto in order to subdue him in case he went wild with the Kyuubi's power. Her chains were ready, as were her sealing tags.

Naruto looked her in the eye before nodding, channeling chakra into his stomach to reveal the seal. He unrolled the scroll with the key, and placed his hand on the center of it. Channeling chakra, he pulled his hand back, the key engraved on his palm.

He pressed the palm of his head onto his stomach, then twisted it unlocked.

When he pulled back, the seal seemed to be unraveling slowly, the squiggly markings around glowing bright while the spiral unraveled. By the time the spiral finished coalescing into the outter markings, he gave Kushina a grin...

Right before his eyes rolled back into his head, his body falling limp.

And now he was here, floating in a wide, white world, no ground or sky. Everything around him was white.

He at least had Kei, or the name her father had given her that caused much grief amongst her siblings, Kurama, with him as company.

"Didn't think I'd end up killing myself. I thought the whole purpose of the key was for that _not_ to happen. But hey, at least we're not in a sewer, so it's not all bad, right?"

" _ **Indeed it is not.**_ "

Naruto and Kei turned around, before Kei's jaw fell wide open.

Floating a few feet in front of them was a figure that Kurama would never forget.

Pale, rust-red hair, similarly coloured goatee reaching all the way to his chest, pale-white skin, and a trio of eyes, his regular two being metallic purple with cocentric rings around a dot pupil; and one on his forehead in a red colour, with similar cocentric black rings around a dot pupil.

He had magatama shaped markings all over his neck, a curved marking making it seem akin to a necklace, and similar magatama markings arrayed around the collar of his white cloak. Under him, various black balls were lazily spinning around, and a golden monk's staff was held on his hand, one end sporting a quarter-circle moon-like head, and the other one sporting a full circle, with various other eliptical rings arrayed in the shape of a stylized sun.

This was Otsutsuki Hagoromo, father of Ninshu, the Bijuu, and the mythical Sage of the Six paths.

" **Father...** "

"Wait a second... Father?"

Looking incredulously at the floating man, Naruto could only gape openly.

Hagoromo gave him a smug smirk as he spoke.

" _ **Yes, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, I am, indeed, the Sage of the Six Paths.**_ "

Naruto's mouth flapped uselessly for a while, before he spoke up again.

"How did you-..."

" _ **Read your mind? It's called Ninshu, really nifty stuff. Had my ideals survived the passage of time, you'd be using it instead of Jutsu.**_ "

"Shit. So I killed myself, and you came to collect my sould because I accidentally killed your daughter as well? Or was it the fact that I tried recreating your eyes?"

" _ **Neither/Nor. You're not dead, in the conventional sense. Well, at least not yet. Give it a few minutes in real time, which translates to hours in your time compression chamber - impressive work by the way - which translates in always and never here where we are, and... You're pretty good.**_ "

"Oh thank Kami. If I'm not dead, then why am I meeting you? Why is Kei-chan here with me?"

Hagoromo turned towards a Kurama, rasing an eyebrow.

" _ **Kei-chan? So you no longer use the beautiful name that I gave you, my dear daughter?**_ "

Kurama could only pout, well, as much as a fox can pout, before puffing her cheeks as she answered.

" **Kurama is a boy's name! I'm not a boy! Do you know how much Shukaku teased me over this name?** "

" _ **So your name isn't good enough for you to tell your boyfriend?**_ "

" **It's not a question of being good or no-... Wait, BOYFRIEND!?** "

Turning away from the uselessly sputtering Kurama, Hagoromo redirected his attention back to the still gaping Naruto.

" _ **Naruto, my boy, close your mouth lest a fly goes inside it.**_ "

"I kind of doubt flies can get here. What I still don't know is why you're meeting me? If I'm dying, then shouldn't I just go to the afterlife, or meet like, Kami, or Yami, or the Shinigami, or whatever?"

" _ **No, no, I used this opportunity, this near death experience of yours to actually talk to you. I've been watching over your actions, and I have to say... You're not at all what I expected you to be.**_ "

"What do you mean by that?"

" _ **Well... Do you know what reincarnation is?... Of course you do, you're not stupid.**_

 _ **Well, I had three children, Indra, my oldest, Meiko, my only daughter, and Asura, my youngest. When I decided to leave my legacy of Ninshu for the next generation, I asked my children how they believed peace should be achieved. Indra's answer was power. Meiko's was tolerance, and Asura's was understanding.**_ "

"Wait a second, Tolerance? Isn't that the same thing as understanding?"

" _ **Not at all. Understanding means that everyone connects on a level that allows them to understand eachother intimately, motivations, pasts, reasons for their actions, and predicates that peace can be universaly achieved.**_

 _ **Tolerance, on the other hand, is predicated on the premise that not everybody is going to be able to understand eachother. Human beings are, ultimately, flawed, motivated by their own personal reasons, each having their own motivations, be they pure or otherwise. Clashes will always happen, of power, of ideals and beliefs, always. Meiko's path to peace was to gather together like-minded people, those who shared similar enough beliefs and moral basis to create the least possible friction, and then live together in the knowledge that they would not always see eye to eye, but as long as certain rules were not violated, and common human decency was mantained, they would always embrace one another as equals.**_

 _ **But that was me going on a tangent.**_

 _ **As I said, I intended to leave Ninshu to one of my three children. Meiko bowed out of the competition, not intent on pursuing my dream of universal peace, but to blaze her own trails and create her own vision of peace, without trampling over the freedoms of others. She and her group of followers settled on an island and christened it Uzushio, their descendants becoming the Uzumaki clan.**_

 _ **I weighed the resolve of my two boys, and I found Asura to be the worthy one to inherit my Ninshu. Indra was dissatisfied and rebelled, attacking his brother in an attempt to kill him. Asura worked together with all of his friends, borrowing their strength in order to drive off Indra, hurting his pride further.**_

 _ **Indra's descendents became the Uchiha, and Asura's became the Senju.**_

 _ **Indra promised to mantain his resolve to seek peace through strength, and prove that his way was the right one, while Asura promised to keep trying to save his brother from the darkness he submerged himself in, so the two joined the cycle of reincarnation, always meeting with one another, and ultimately ending up fighting.**_

 _ **Unlike those two who would come to reincarnate completely, Meiko left a seed of her belief engrained in the spirits of all those who shared the Uzumaki blood, passively giving them her hardy body and prowess with seals and blades. Other than that, they gained an affinity to family, and the determination to find a modicum of peace and protection of their loved ones.**_

 _ **Indra's descendents inherited the Sharingan, and with it an innate lust for power, all because of a twisted perspective of peace.**_

 _ **Asura's inherited the Mokuton bloodline, a natural charisma about them that attracted people to them, and the chakra that could pacify their younger siblings, the Bijuu.**_

 _ **Their quarrel climaxed during the battle between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, where Hashirama managed to make Madara understand him, and they created peace with the Uchiha, creating a settlement. Eventually, other clans who were tired of the war joined the settlement, and it grew into a Village, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.**_

 _ **But people heralded Hashirama as their uncontested leader, despite the fact that he never applied for the position and vouched for Madara instead. A seed of resentment was sown in Madara at that, and it kept growing as he saw that despite various villages having been established, following their example, in the search for peace, the Shinobi system still created pain and suffering for others.**_

 _ **Madara decided that the solution was power. If he had the power to rule over the others, he could force them to stop fighting altogether, even if at the cost of their freedom.**_

 _ **As Madara ran away from the Village, Hashirama chased after him, and they clashed in what is known as the valley of the end, once again. This time, Hashirama wounded Madara in what he thought was a mortal blow, and he left his friend behind to die due to his injuries, incapable of doing the deed himself.**_

 _ **Hashirama died eventually, as did Madara, though years after everyone believed under different conditions, and the spirits of Indra and Asura followed the path of reincarnation again.**_

 _ **This time, Asura had reincarnated in you, and Indra in that Uchiha boy, Sasuke.**_

 _ **I expected you two to once again go back to the cycle, and it seemed that it would happen as such at first. With you, seeking love from others, trying to prove yourself and become Hokage so that they would acknowledge you, and Sasuke seeking for power in order to step out of the shadow of his younger brother.**_

 _ **But that Shisui boy, and that Itachi boy, they loved you like a sibling. They embraced you, taught you to love yourself, and to value yourself. The Uzumaki in you burned bright at that, and Asura's ideals of peace merged Meiko's. You were happy with the family you had, and you would try to create more bonds, even with those who had hurt you. You would seek to understand.**_

 _ **But when Shisui died, and Itachi did what he had to, you became disillusioned with that, and Meiko's ideals solidified within you. You seeked like-minded people, though you would give an opportunity even to those who were different to get to meet you, satisfying you Inner Asura, though you would not forgive nor forget those who harmed you for no reason other than they could.**_

 _ **In a way, you also gained some of Indra's resolved, probably from spending time with the Uchiha boys and losing them as you did. You try to gain as much power as you can, though not to subjugate others and impose your own ideals of peace, but to protect those you hold dear.**_

 _ **But this brings me a connundrum. Bad things will be happening in the future, powers thought forgotten, and best left like that, will seek to rise up. I intended to rely on you and Sasuke to fight for humanity, by gifting you the six paths power aligned with each of my children.**_

 _ **But, you've mixed your different parts. Indra, Meiko, and Asura, blood from all of them flows through you now. Their Ideals melded into one within you. You already inherited all that Meiko's bloodline could give you, and you're advancing the bloodlines from Asura and Indra within yourself. Would it be wise of me to gift you Asura's chakra?**_

 _ **Other than that, you're not very connected to Uchiha Sasuke. You graduated with his generation in order to protect Itachi's brother as he asked of you, yes, but you do not have a relationship beyond teammates, companions maybe. But not friends, nor brothers.**_

 _ **If I were to gift him Indra's power, would he work with you to save the world from this threat?**_ "

Naruto and Kurama had their Jaws well and truly dragging on the groundless void. That history lesson was somewhat enlightening, and the knowledge that he managed to assert his own will above that of the spirit he reincarnated from was an ego booster. But knowing that dangers great enough to ruffle the sage of the six paths were coming left him worried.

Kurama was the one to give a suggestion.

" **Father, how about... You give Naruto both halves of your power? Before you shoot me down, just hear me out. He shares the ideals of your three biological children, his body holds the blood of all three, and unlike with those damned Uchiha, I can actually trust Naruto not to abuse the power of the eyes he has, as I would with the power you'd grant him.**

 **He might not seek your ideal of universal peace, but he'd try to create his own haven, as Meiko did, and in doing so he might inspire others to find their own peace, while saving and protecting the people who share his own ideals and yet cannot defend themselves from the likes of Danzo, may Yami's flames have his blackened soul.** "

Hagoromo looked Naruto in the eyes, and Naruto felt as if he was being read through, as far as his soul as well, before he nodded.

" _ **Alright. I shall entrust this power to you, Naruto, but remember, this power is both a boon, and a curse. With this power, I also entrust you the responsibility of saving your kind. You will be unable to share this burden with the reincarnation of Indra. Are you still willing to accept the powers?**_ "

"Why can't I share the burden with Sasuke? The future of humanity is to be crafted by us, together. I shall allow whoever desires to help me to do so, and perhaps create a better future from it. I may be unable to love and understand all and sundry, but I can at least try to teach them to do as I did and find their own peace."

Giving Naruto an understanding nod, Hagoromo placed each of his hands on one of Naruto's shoulders.

" _ **Before we do this, I'll have to give you a piece of advice. Train hard with these abilities before using them. Had you gained only one side, the use would come instinctually, but gaining both the same won't happen, as the instincts would confuse eachother. If you try to go beyond your limits with this power, you may just explode yourself.**_ "

"Wait, what."

And like that, Naruto felt a surge of power flowing through him, his body warm as a fresh spring breeze, and his eyes warm just below the point of uncomfortability.

" _ **You now have six paths sage chakra, though you will only be capable of using it once you become a sage on your own, and the Rinne-sharingan on your right eye. Be careful with your attempt at integrating the Hyuuga's Byakugan into your other eye, the error margin is way too small to just charge ahead. Try to learn to use Indra's eye so that you don't accidentally rip someone's soul out. Other than that, your use of Senju blood actually granted you an usable Rinnegan, so go wild. Good bye, Uzumaki Naruto.**_ "

And like that, Naruto and Kurama were sent back to his body.

Hagoromo let out a sigh into the wide open vacuum before speaking.

" _ **Take good care of my daughter, Uzumaki, or we will be having words when you DO die.**_ "

 _ **-Time compression Chamber-**_

Everyone was watching Naruto's body, waiting for a hint of movement. Just a teensy bit. Everybody was stone faced, and they were starting to lose hope...

Until a massive explosion of chakra cracked the ground under Naruto, the sheer pressure pushing everyone back as Naruto's body was wrapped around a yellow-orange nimbus, even while his forehead and eyes were wrapped by a purplish one.

The chakra then sunk back into Naruto, before the blonde's eyes shot wide open. He took a shuddering breath, his whole body tensing for a moment, before he relaxed on the ground, his face locked in a fascinated expression.

Kushina, being the closest person to him, spoke up.

"Sochi... A-are you alright?"

Naruto answered in an absentminded tone.

"I didn't think Chakra would look like this..."

Kushina was about to go check on him to see if he had a concussion, but Naruto bent over at the waist, revealing a pair of metallic purple eyes, a dot pupil in the center surrounded by various cocentric rings.

15 minutes later and everyone was sat around a table, steaming mugs of tea arrayed all around said table in front of each person. Naruto took a sip of tea, his unnerving eyes roving over everyone as a look of wonder manifested itself on his face.

"Naru-kun" Started Hinata "You need to tell us what happened. We were afraid for you for a moment there. You looked like you... You look like you'd died."

Hinata let out a shuddering breath at that.

"You have no idea how that thought terrified me, Naruto. If you scare me like this again I swear I'll punch you all the way to the moon, you hear me?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Sorry, love."

Shizune spoke up after.

"So... What happened?"

"Oh. Well. I kinda died, kinda being the operative term. I went to this white place where I met an old guy. He gave me a history lesson before giving me super powers... That I can't use yet or I'll blow myself up. He told me some good things, some bad things, and then sent me back here.

The good news is that my injecting myself with the modified version of Tsunade's blood worked. My eyes evolved into the next stage as I believed them to.

The bad news is that there's an apocalyptic event caused by an entity that made even the sage of six paths sweat, so we have to get super, stupidly strong in order to face it. Plus, I'm kind of in the center of all of it. Prophecy and all that."

Mashiro spoke up, having stopped her experiments with the Hyuuga-Byakugan sample when she felt the explosion of chakra, and having decided to learn more about what had happened.

"These eyes of yours... What's different between them and your previous ones?"

"Well, these eyes are pretty much hacks. Not as hacks as Mangekyo in some ways, but even more so in others.

These eyes allow me to summon various different creatures, weaponize my own body, absorb chakra and jutsu, read the minds and rip out the souls of people, summon the king of hell to interrogate people, control gravity, mastery over the five main elements plus yin, yang and yin-yang release, the ability to control up to six bodies, bestowing each of these powers to each of them and seeing through all six simultaneously, and the ability to bring the dead back to life.

Oh, by the way."

With that, he turned towards Kushina, allowing the instinctual words to slide off his tongue after making a few handsigns.

" **Gedo: Rinne Tensei! (Outer Path: Samsara of the Heavenly life)** "

Everybody watched as one of the locks in Naruto's hair went from blonde to bone white, even as Kushina's weird, Edo Tensei body started changing. Her eyes lost their black sclerae, returning to normal. The paper-like cracks in her skin smoothed over as she grew skin, and she was suddenly breathing.

Kushina looked down at herself, poking, prodding and pinching her own body in order to make sure that she really was alive.

She turned towards Naruto to thank him, only to see him sweating and breathing heavily.

"Oh Kami... I ***huff*** haven't ever felt this tired from spending chakra since the days I trained with Hashirama and Tobirama Jijis. This is going to take a lot of time to get used to. Plus, the constantly seeing chakra thing is kind of fucking with my perception. I wonder if I can turn them off..."

Decreasing the amount of chakra flowing into his eyes, Naruto felt them recede to their eternal mangekyo state, the chakra drain lowering considerably. Reducing the chakra further reduced the eyes to the 3 tomoe state, before cutting off the chakra flow made them return to their usual blue.

"That's going to take getting used to. I'll be using these last 6 months to get acquainted with my Rinnegan, then we'll all have to leave as the chamber recharges. I'll probably work on modifying the time compression to a day per year. But I'm bored of spending time here training, I need to live a little."

Naruto looked back to the people around the table, asking irritably at their gaping looks.

"What?"

Hayato was the one to answer.

"Naru-chan, you've just brought a dead person back to life. You're the weird one for treating it like it's no big deal. We are just showing the appropriate level of awe.

I mean, I've seen some impressive things, but a pair of eyeballs that allow you to raise the dead? And all these other abilities... These eyes are extremely powerful, bordering on the godlike."

Naruto scoffed at that.

"You think the Rinnegan is good? My next level of eyes is going to be pure Hax, people. I don't get why you get so surprised when I do it using eyeballs, I'm sure the Uzumaki witchcraft, if given enough time and effort, could do the same stuff. So let's just take a deep breath, relax, and help me master the eyeballs of destiny, or whatever. 'Kay?"

The others could only nod dumbly before going back to work.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **This is just a bridge. It's not a filler, because it actually advance the plot tremendously, but it did so only for Naruto's immediate surroundings, and not for the world at large yet. I'm restraining the use of six paths chakra for now, but I'll have him get a handle on it soon. The threat spoken of by Hagoromo is something at Kaguya-level, so Naruto needs to be at full power to face it, and even then it'll be a tough fight.**

 **Please follow and/or favorite, and leave your thoughts, opinions and ideas on the reviews for the story.**

 **This is FrancoGamerxz, peace out!**


	30. Chapter 30: Distance and Foxy Twins

**Disclaimer.**

 _ **-Iwagakure no Sato-**_

Onoki was having a pretty shit day. He had been busting hump, dealing with paperwork that got backed up during his attendance to the chunnin exam finals.

Remembering those finals brought a shudder of simultaneous fear and anger to his body. The yellow flash had a living child that they had no idea about, and said child was an S-rank shinobi with the knowledge of the Hiraishin that had deeply scarred many of the shinobi of Iwa.

The boy also seemed to be very friendly with the Mizukage, having played an important part in the ending of Kiri's bloodline purges, and he was capable of going toe-to-toe with the reanimated first and second hokage's, at the same time!

Sure, they were nowhere near their full power, but neither was he due to old age, and he had no delusions about the fact that were he in the boy's situation, he would've had his ass handed to him.

The saving grace seemed to be that the boy held no resentment towards Iwa, neither for their dislike of his father, nor for their hand in the destruction of his mother's homeland. He seemed to be genuine when speaking about simply letting the past lie, and burying the hatchet. He sure as hell was going to take this olive branch, it was better than could be expected.

Which is why his current situation was even more irritating.

The Iwa council had convened and were talking about ordering assassinations and such on the blonde, afraid of his prowess.

Unlike Konoha's council, which was comprised by both Shinobi and Civillians, the Iwa council only had shinobi in it, be it active duty, reserve, or retired shinobi. And most of them were downright apopletic at the fact that the yellow flash had ' _dared to spread his murderous seed_ '.

Couldn't they see that whomever they sent after him would simply be destroyed? Then, any of his thoughts about leaving Iwa alone for the most part would be well and truly done. Heaving out a sigh, Onoki spoke up.

"SILENCE!"

The room quieted down, everyone turning the focus onto the Tsuchikage.

"There will be no needless antagonization of Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto."

"WHAT!?"

The shout came from Akedase Shiba, a 45 year old man who had lost both his brothers, his sons and his nephew during the conflict with the yellow flash.

"The son of the bastard that cost us family, loved ones, and even the goddamn war still lives, and you intend to do nothing to him?"

"Shut your stupid mouth, you fool. As the Kage, I know damn well how you feel about the yellow flash. But we must keep in mind that Namikaze Minato's actions were his own. Not his son's. Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto has done nothing against Iwa, and he does not seem to hold the normal animosity or resentment that people from Konoha show towards us for hating their favorite Hokage, despite the fact that he was the man's son!"

"But Tsuchikage-sama, he knows that blasted technique!"

"Exactly, you moron! The boy knows the Hiraishin, is good enough with water jutsu to use it agains a revived Senju fucking Tobirama without fear, could contend with the revived forms of the first two hokage in taijutsu, and had his Kenjutsu taught to him by Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, up to the point where his prowess matches his mother's according to the man! He is already an S-rank in skill, I do not doubt he is one in mentality as well. He can separate professional events from personal feelings. This means he doesn't begrudge us for what happened in the past!

But more terrifying than his strength, is his talent! He is only fourteen! With the continued instruction of Furinji Hayato, Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, Hatake Kakashi, Sarutobi Hiruzen and whomever else he can find, do you believe him to not become a shinobi stronger than his father ever was? Perhaps, he already is.

Sending people after him would be sentencing them to their deaths, and then having the boy turn his sights towards us! That would be the stupidest thing possible. No. We will accept the Olive branch that he extended to us, and hope that tensions between us and leaf do not come to blows during the boy's lifetime."

Having things put in perspective in that manner had the council more terrified than ever before, their anger being forsaken.

Except for Shiba. He had a grudge for the boy's father, and wiping out his bloodline would be the first step to putting the ghosts of his loved ones to rest.

' _I will have my revenge, Namikaze-brat._ '

 _ **-Kumogakure no Sato-**_

Ay, the fourth Raikage, was pretty goddamn bored. After witnessing the Uzumaki boy's display during the chunnin exams, he had been boiling over in excitment. A new addition to the ' _fast boys club_ ' represented the type of challenge he hadn't had since the days of the boy's father.

The boy had implied to have had a mastery of the Hiraishin at least on pair with his father's which was impressive at his age. Hell, any age. Other than that was the fact that the boy took obvious care of his body, and cherished his muscled physique.

That simply made Ay even more excited about the challenge. Muscle respects muscle, and the kid was hitting all the right spots to impress the Raikage.

T'was a pity that he was trapped under a stack of built-up paperwork, so preoccupied that he did not even have the time to whip out his dumbells. His poor, poor biceps, unable to be fostered, to be stimulated to grow further...

And Ay was not the only one thinking about the blonde.

Yugito, Samui and Karui were all together, having a ' _girl's day_ ', but their thoughts kept revolving around a certain blue-eyed blonde. His charisma was simply entrancing, his displays of strength and skill were breathtaking. Whenever he smiled, the room seemed to light up, but when he directed a smile directly towards you, it felt as if your heart would leap out of your chest and into his hands.

And he was genuinely nice and gentlemanly! During their time in the tower he would open doors, pull out seats, and overall act in a friendly, though not overtly friendly manner to any girl who was close to him.

They saw him in this gentlemanly persona, with a formal get up, they saw him angry enough to kill a person with only his killing intent, and then they saw his manly, somewhat animallistic aesthetic during the exams finals, giving him a ' _tough guy_ ' look, without looking particularly thuggish, or like a dumb brute.

He hit all the right notes to stimulate the girls' emotions, and libido.

Though Samui and Karui felt for the blonde, Yugito was the one worst off.

" _ **Kit, You should have claimed him when you had the chance! Now you're walking around like a zombie, sighing and moaning wistfully whenever you think about his beautiful blue eyes, his bright blonde hair, and his tight, hard buns... Oh god kit please claim him! His girlfriend was willing to share, so we can do it too! We'll tease him, then allow him to ravish us, and then-**_ "

" _Matatabi! Not right now! At least wait until we're home alone!_ "

Yugito's blush was mirrored by Karui and Samui. The three girls met eachother's looks and chuckled ruefully, before Karui spoke up.

"Share him?"

The other two girls nodded in agreement.

"Sounds reasonable."

"It should be cool."

And like that, the three friends went back to their blonde-related thoughts, both romantic and dirty.

 _ **-Within Time Compression-**_

" _Okay, I've got the Shinigami Mask and the cerimonial blade. I'll be unsealing dad and your other side now, Kei-chan._ "

" _ **Finally, I'll feel comple- wait what was that about a cerimonial blade?**_ "

Before she could question further, Naruto slammed the mask onto his face, jabbed the blade into his stomach, and with a quick jerk, his stomach was open.

The blood-covered blade clattered on the ground as Naruto felt the cold feeling of death around him, but unlike the expected heart squeezing, it felt to him more like someone rubbing an icecube down his spine, or being wrapped up in a cold blanket.

A jet of blue light jumped out of the mask, coalescing into the shape of Namikaze Minato who shot Naruto a grateful look, before an orange light jetted out from his stomach. That done, the blue dissipated as Minato was finally allowed to pass onto the afterlife.

Taking off the mask and storing it with the blade, Naruto sat down in a lotus position and allowed himself to drift into his mindscape.

 _ **-Mindscape-**_

Naruto's mindscape reflected a large castle, the floors, walls and ceilings all made of white marble. It was lavishly decorated, with furniture in tones of red and gold, vibrant colours to reflect his nature.

Naruto ambled outside of his mindscape, directing himself to the section which connected to Kei's consciousness. Arriving there, he found the oddest sight.

Instead of finding the full form of Kei, it's size and power output increased, he found two large foxes facing eachother, their gazes meeting eachother's. One of them he recognized as Kei, her orange fur and black markings making her easily recognizable.

The other one was somewhat similar to Kei, though her fur was a darker shade of orange. Her face seemed a bit more vicious, in the sense of a dangerous woman, and not a rabid animal. She gave the other two a mysterious grin before speaking up.

" **So, it seems my intended container managed to befriend my other half, and he even allows her to roam free around his mind, like a** _ **pet**_ **. So, what's wrong that you had to let the '** _ **evil**_ **' part out of the Shinigami? You felt as if the power you had access to wasn't enough? Do you want even more power? Are you going to demand my power as rent?** "

Kei started growling at the darker vixen, but Naruto stepped in front of Kei, putting himself directly in front of the vixen and beckoning her to him with his finger.

Bemused, the Yin side of Kurama bent down towards the blonde, her single eye as big as him. She was surprised when he flicked her nose, giving her a grumpy frown.

"Don't say that kind of thing, you idiot. 'Rent? Pet? Evil?' Stop this stupid talk right now. Kei isn't my pet, she is my partner and one of my oldest and dearest people. I don't intend to take power that does not belong to me as long as it is not willingly shared, and I don't intend to ask for 'rent'. And Evil? Not likely. You may be the dark part, but if the whole isn't evil, then neither is the darkness.

And I know that Kei-chan isn't evil, so I know that you, too, are not evil.

Why did I free you from the Shiki Fuujin? Because everyone deserves to be whole. Neither Kei-chan, nor you, must feel particularly well, being incomplete. So I did my best to unite you, while freeing my dad from the Shinigami's stomach. I just hope that the Shinigami isn't too pissed off at what I did.

My intention was for your Yin and Yang energies to make you complete, and then give you the choice to simply walk away or stay with me, either in here, within the seal, or outside. I would simply have to find a way to materialize you outside."

To say that Kurama's Yin was surprised was to say that the ocean was a bit moist. She had not expected to be admonished, surprised, and accepted, all at the same time. And the boy's admonishment was not made with arrogance, or with the intent to humiliate, but to make her see his point.

She smirked lightly at that.

" **I normally would not allow myself to merge with a half of me that allowed herself to be turned into a pet, but you, boy... You intrigued me. I shall integrate, and then I'll reach a conclusion about you.** "

Having said that, the Yin side held her hand out towards Kei. Kei shot Naruto a questioning look, receiving only a supportive nod from the blonde.

"Don't keep yourself splintered on my behalf, do what feels best for you!"

Smiling softly at Naruto, Kei took her Yin half's hand in her own before a jolt of electricity passed between the two. A nimbus of energy emerged from each of the two like a bright pillar, a lighter tone of yellowish-orange from Kei, and a darker, maroon-ish orange from the Yin half. The two pillars started leaning towards eachother, before they started wrapping around the two vixens, surrounding them in a spiral and covering them completely, before a bright explosion of light blinded Naruto lightly.

When he regained his sight and looked back, Naruto was surprised to still see two separate foxes, though they both seemed to be more at peace. The feel of the raw, almost unrestrained power that Kei exuded seemed to have been put under control.

The darker-furred vixen turned her look upon Naruto, giving him a look that was simultaneously thankful, loving, hungry and teasing.

" **My, My, Naruto-kun. I have to say, you've been the best host I could possibly...** _ **desire**_ **... I understand why Kei chose to stay here with you.** "

"Hmwah? Weren't you two supposed to balance eachother out and become one, or something like that?"

The darker vixen put on a saddened, hurt tone as she spoke.

" **You're trying to get rid of me so soon, Naruto-kun? That truly hurst my feelings, you know...** "

Naruto frowned lightly at that.

"You know that's not what I meant. But really, what gives? Your power feels... Stable. Complete. But you're still two different people. How?"

The use of the word people sent a deep feeling of appreciation towards the hearts of both vixens, before Kei spoke up.

" **We completed eachother in an... Unexpected manner. Our continued existance as separate entities somewhat stabilized us in these forms. When we touched with the intent of merging, our powers connected and intermingled, as did our memories and emotions for that moment. Our power is now under control due to our harmony, but we are now, effectively, two different people. Now and forevermore.** "

Yin-Kurama spoke up at that.

" **What she said. Picture me as the mental and spiritual component of chakra, and Kei as the physical one. Usable on it's own, though incomplete, yet resulting in chakra when put together, in harmony. Just think of us as really close twins, instead of a single entity. That being said, I really need a name. Like Kei, Kurama isn't just going to cut it for me.** "

Yin-Kurama thought for a bit, before reaching a decision.

" **From now on I am Kiyomi, Kei's better twin.** "

Kei let out an indignant yelp at that.

" **Better twin? I'll show you better twin!** "

"Calm down, girls. Now... Do you want to stay in the seal, or do the two of you want to go out and stretch out your legs?"

Kei was the one to respond.

" **I'd love to go out and actually feel the grass between my toes again, but how would that work?** "

"Well... My chakra is dense enough that I can make actual physical chains that respond semi-sentiently to my intentions. Maybe with your chakras being so dense, you could manifest a desired physical form outside of the seal? Try to focus your chakra on my navel, and I'll push you out as I would the chains. You'll have to be the ones to choose your appearances, though."

Kiyomi and Kei nodded at that, before Naruto vanished from his mindscape.

 _ **-Outside the Mindscape-**_

Naruto opened his eyes, noticing that the sun had set from when he first started meditating. Searching for the chakra signatures in his navel, Naruto found the two similar, though different, chakras.

Focusing on mantaining them separate, Naruto pushed them out through his bellybutton into the room he was alone in.

Two clouds of chakra started streaming from him, making what seemed to be balls of chakra tethered to his stomach, before they started condensing and coalescing.

The lighter cloud gained the form of a 6'1" girl, her hair a light orange, reaching her neck, with eyes in the same colour. She had an athletic body, sporting b-cup breasts, a trim waist, defined abs, legs, thighs and glutes. She was a consummate amazon, though unlike her fearsome looks, she was quite shy. This was Kei's chosen human form.

The darker cloud of chakra coalesced into a 5'8" woman, her hair a deep, dark red, her body soft, her bust measuring at a whopping E-cup, her waist, thin and sinuous, leading to a pair of plump thighs, and a large ass that finished up her hourglass figure. Her ass was good enough to bounce a coin off of, I tell you that. Her plump thighs lead to well-built legs, with defined calves and dainty, princess-like feet. Her lips were red, as if she had always a layer of perfectly-applied lipstick on, a natural, mischievous smirk etched onto her mouth, while her eyes were blood red with slit pupils. Her hair was left loose and reached her waist. This was Kiyomi, and she looked like Sin incarnate.

And both had materialized completely naked, seemingly forgetting to materialize their clothes. While Kei blushed prettily and tried to cover her body, Kiyomi seemed unconcerned, turning her teasing smirk towards Naruto and sauntering her way towards him.

" **Ara, Ara, would you look at this. The helpless, sexy twins, completely nude, at the mercy of the mean, merciless warden~** "

She spoke while circling Naruto, giving his skin butterfly-light touches here and there, rubbing a shoulder, chest, thigh.

She leaned towards Naruto's face, seemingly to kiss him, before she shifted at the last second, whispering in his ear.

" _ **Perhaps you might ravish us?**_ "

But before Naruto could do anything else, Kiyomi stepped back before her chakra bubbled around her, while Kei's did the same.

Kei's coalesced into a comfortable-looking t-shirt, a pair of long, loose pants and wooden Geta sandals.

Kiyomi's coalesced into a red, floral-patterned Kimono, it's bust line lower than strictly necessary, showing enough cleavage to tease and tantalize, while not showing enough to satiate curiosity, a very hard balance to strike. It hugged her body snuggly, though comfortably, showing off her amazing curves, being held closed by what seemed like a flimsy stripe of silk, and the hem of the Kimono ended at mid-thigh, giving the impression that sitting down, bending over or any other such movement would result in a flashing of unmentionables.

Naruto could barely hold back his nosebleed, though he couldn't hold back the grin that split his face open as he spoke.

"Great! I can introduce you two to everybody now!"

Naruto noticed the wince that they gave, sighing lightly at that.

"Come on, you know that people around me are open-minded. They won't discriminate against you."

The foxy twins looked at eachother, their eyes narrowing slightly as they thought about a certain redhead.

Naruto, noticing this, sighed before speaking up.

"I know you have a bone to pick with my mom, but can you try to give her a chance? For me?"

The two nodded grudgingly, before moving out to the living room, prepared for a dramatic confrontation.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! So... This happened. Next chapter, the twins meet with Naruto's friends with the same time. How will they react, knowing that they are two halves of the Kyuubi? How will Kushina react to the meeting?**

 **Find out in the next chapter! As always, please leave a review, follow and/or favorite.**

 **FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	31. Chapter 31: Foxy ladies, broken limits

**Not mine.**

To say things in the room were tense would be an understatement.

Naruto had just introduced Kiyomi and Kei as the two halves of the now free Kyuubi, and the kunoichi in the room were eyeing them with a mixture of suspicion, and fear.

Mashiro simply looked at them as an interesting oddity, begging to be researched, while Yamamoto and Hayato were nonchallant in their presence, as they would in the presence of most others.

The remaining researchers from Mashiro's group had passed out though.

But, the biggest amount of tension came from the stares exchanged between Kei and Kiyomi, and Kushina. The twin vixens still possessed the memories of being trapped inside of Kushina, chained down to a moon, seen as nothing but a mindless beast and a chakra battery.

Hinata was the one to break the tension. She stood up from her seat, making her way towards the two halves of the former Kyuubi, Kurama, and bowing towards them.

That surprised them, but what she said did so even more.

"Thank you for always being there to heal and protect Naru-kun whenever he needed. You were always there with him, from his birth until now. You were his oldest, and most powerful protector, and I thank you two for that."

Kiyomi and Kei exchanged looks, before looking back towards Hinata. Kei gave her a friendly, though uncertain, smile, even as Kiyomi gave her an appraising look, followed by a dangerous smirk, then spoke up.

"If you reflect the caliber of the remainder of Naruto's Harem, then I don't think me and Kei will have a problem in being a part of it."

Everyone else gave the twins surprised looks even as Kei sputtered denials, before Kushina spoke up.

"NO! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

Kiyomi narrowed her eyes at the redhead, her tone turning frigid as she spoke.

"Hoh... And what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I won't allow my dear Sochi to be corrupted by-"

"Mom."

Naruto's tone managed, miraculously, to break through Kushina's anger and stop her diatribe. The redhead turned towards her son, seeing him with an unnaturaly serious face as he spoke.

"Don't talk like that to Kiyomi and Kei. They are sentient, intelligent women with hopes, dreams, goals and emotions. They're not mindless beasts, or just a raw concentration or hatred, or anything of the sort.

You might have held a vision of the Kyuubi while it was sealed inside of you. Well you will forget that when dealing with either of the twins. Kei has been one of my oldest and dearest companions, and Kiyomi, as her sibling, and literally other half, is just as dear to me. Understood?"

"But Sochi-"

"I asked if I was understood, Kushina. Yes, or no?"

The fact that Naruto had called her by her name, and not the usual adress of mom conveyed how serious the situation was. Holding back some tears at that, Kushina nodded stiffly.

Not wanting to let something like this get between her and her son, she decided to swallow her anger, fears, insecurities, and try to start anew.

She turned towards the twins, following Hinata's lead in bowing to them.

"I am sorry for my shameful actions and words towards you during our time together. Though it does not make them any better, I was ignorant about the effects of my actions on you and your existance itself. I hope you can forgive me for my past indiscretions, and we could start anew."

Yamamoto more than anyone else held a gobsmacked look.

Kushina never apologized like this! Specially when she was so set in her ways, in rant-mode! Even as her teacher, he himself had to work around that difficulty. ' _It seems Kushi-chan is going as far as needed to be accepted by Naruto in his life..._ '

Kiyomi and Kei exchanged looks, before Kiyomi looked towards the blank-faced Naruto, then turning towards Kushina.

She walked towards the Uzumaki redhead in deliberate steps, before taking hold of her face by the cheeks with one of her hands. Naruto seemed to be moving to interrupt, but Kushina shot him a look that had him standing back and letting them deal with their trouble.

The other people, seeing Naruto relaxing, did so as well.

"Uzumaki Kushina... I will never forget the fact that you treated me like nothing more than a mindless, wild beast. However, you are very important to Naruto, so I will forgive you this time, and this time only."

Having said that, Kiyomi pulled Kushina's face closer to hers, and damn near growled at her.

"However, the next time you deign to use your chains on me, I'll be using your mouth to quench the fire it starts. Be aware."

Having said that, Kiyomi released Kushina's face, turning around to see the incredulous looks sent by most, and the incredibly and cripplingly aroused looks on Naruto and Hinata. She smirked at that, her nature as a foxy tease, a coy seductress, making things like those easy.

She walked towards Naruto, leaning next to him and whispering in his ear.

" _I know of a few uses for your chakra chains that do not involve hurting people... In a bad way~_ "

Naruto grunted at that even as a light trickle of blood fell down his nostril.

Kiyomi followed her words up by letting her face get close to Naruto's, their lips a hair's breadth away before she moved away, taking Kei away with her.

As Naruto was left in his seat, having to deal with a piece of wood not at all related to the Mokuton bloodline, Kiyomi and Kei spoke to eachother silently.

"You still haven't forgiven Kushina." Came from Kei.

"No, I have not, and neither have you. But we will, in time. Still, I will be punishing her for her actions."

Kei raised an eyebrow at that.

"And how exactly are you going to do so in a way that won't lead to Naruto giving us a good whipping?"

Kiyomi smirked at that, the seductive and lustful aura tinged with malicious vengeance easily oozing off of her.

"Easily. She tries to resist our Naru so... I will corrupt her. Make her forsake the moral qualms she so prides herself on in regards and in relation to Naruto. Make her behave like she believes a wild, Immoral beast would in her situation. Making Kushina accept Naruto as a lover will be the sweetest of revenges..."

Kei nodded resolutely at that. She might not have been the 'Dark' side of the entity known as Kurama, but she managed to hold on to a grudge like you wouldn't believe. She agreed with Kiyomi's plan, and her forgiving of Kushina would be completely fulfilled when Naruto and her became one.

Kiyomi kept on at that, not aware of her sister's thoughts and musings.

"Still, what you said about Naruto Whipping us has promise... I'll probably get him to use his chains..."

And like that, the remaining 6 months of time compression passed by in a chaotic blur.

Kiyomi had taken to purposefully speaking up about her favorite, lewdest fantasies, emphasizing the role of Naruto in them, and the sheer charm and eroticism he exuded, whenever in the presence of Kushina. Knowing from Kei's memories of Naruto talking to her that Kushina was a grade-a pervert, she knew that her words would affect the Kunoichi.

The other positive was that her words had an effect on Naruto himself as well. She had decided to play a game of teasing and seduction with the blond, using her body and words to relentlessly tease him. Her goal was to have him out of control and trying to bang down her door and simply take her, his calm and composure completely forgotten.

Naruto had noticed Kiyomi's plans, both for himself and his mother. And while he did not involve himself with the dealings between the vixen and his mother as it was between them and them alone, he decided to not fall into Kiyomi's game. He started trying to give out as good as he took, teasing her relentlessly, taking every opportunity to bare more skin and flesh than strictly necessary, happening to squeeze by her just hard enough to have her feel his body, and his manhood, as often as possible... You get the drift.

The end results of these interactions were threefold, or even more.

For Kushina, every and each day had turned into a living hell. She had started by pretending to not hear Kiyomi, ignoring her and trying to immerse herself in any other activities, but eventually she just couldn't and started trying to avoid the vixen.

Said Vixen was a sensor, though, and managed to track her down wherever she was, acting as if her presence in a given place had nothing to do with Kushina, and then kept spouting off about her fantasies. Added to that was the fact that every division Kushina happened to be in had some sort of phallic object. Cucumbers, Eggplants, Daikon radishes, clubs and staffs, and so on and so forth.

Things for her had gotten so bad that she had taken to superimposing what she imagined to be Naruto's manhood onto anything that could, in any vague way, be considered phallic. Knives, tubes, rolled up magazines and scrolls. Even the Handle and blade of her Katana had started to shift into a glistening, throbbing phallus, causing her much grief during her Kenjutsu practice with Yamamoto.

Naruto had been having a hard time too, however. Kiyomi was masterfully playing on Kushina and his desires, and she was awakening a sort of hunger Naruto had never felt before. He tended to try his best to dump the excess energy into his training, helping him progress leaps and bounds in the use of his Mokuton and Rinnegan, forcing Yamamoto to actually take him seriously in sheer swordsmanship, and having the invincible superman take him somewhat seriously in taijutsu.

Still, that wasn't enough. His lust was almost overflowing, his body releasing hormones that made Kushina's ordeal worse, but reflected his pent-up state. He had taken to have Hinata, Shizune and Fuu pairing up with him for various intense, long and hard 'training sessions' in whichever division they found the space to. Their sighs, moans and groans filled the entire living area, making things even harder for Kushina.

Shizune surmised that she'd probably mastered the healing of the female genital area at a level not even Tsunade did, just from having to ease the burdens off of herself and the other girls. Hinata and Fuu were constantly asking for her help to ease them of their sore flesh and to reduce their limps, otherwise they'd be unable to train.

Hinata, Fuu, Herself and Kei had taken to having Taijutsu lessons with Hayato whenever Naruto wasn't keeping the man busy. They had progressed beyond their wildest expectations in the field, with her progressing from low jounin to mid-jounin in the field, Fuu having gone from high-chunnin to Low Jonin, and Hinata who previously managed to fight at Elite Jounin level for short periods of time only, managing to extend her time and increase her stamina.

They had also been training with Kushina and Naruto's clones, and using scrolls, for ninjutsu.

Shizune had incorporated various water and earth jutsu into her arsenal for defense, supplementing her offensive use of projectiles and poisons. She added Chakra scalpels, taught directly by Naruto, to her arsenal, mixing them with her Jounin-level taijutsu to make her at least as strong as Kabuto had been. All in all, she could probably give Asuma, or even Kakashi or Gai a fair run for their money. Though in a fight with Asuma the result would be a tossup, while Gai and Kakashi would eventually be capable of defeating her. Probably.

Naruto's devious, cunning mind had somewhat rubbed off on her, after all. Along with other things that enjoyed rubbing off on her. And in her.

Fuu had been physically conditioned to handle more of her partner's dense chakra, not having an Uzumaki body that managed to handle Bijuu chakra right off the bat. Her training physically consisted of Hayato pushing her towards her absolute limits with the exercises, strength, endurance, agility and flexibility, before having her, assisted by Kushina to suppress her if needed, slowly and steadily feeding more and more of Chomei's chakra into her own chakra coils, stretching them and hardening them, protecting them from further damage and preparing her for the next step in using Bijuu Chakra. Version 2.

Other than that, Fuu had been helped by Yamamoto to better her projectile throwing, which she paired with her Jinchuuriki-specific abilities to manifest various Kunai, Shuriken, bows and arrows and senbon out of hardened spider silk and sharpened resin. She was, all-in-all, solidly low-jonin.

Hinata, though... After Naruto, Hinata showed the biggest amount of improvement. The meeting with the Hyuuga clan had lit a fire under her. Despite the fact that she had heard the elders' decisions in regards to her, she didn't trust them not to try to turn on her or her sister eventually. Stupidity is, after all, a chronic disease.

Other than that was the fact that with Kushina and Tsunade entering Naruto's life, she felt the need to up her game. She had promised to Naruto, after all, that she'd be strong...

 _ **-Flashback no Jutsu-**_

 _"Hey, she's one of those weird, white eyed people!"_

 _A 6 year old Hyuuga Hinata was not having a good day. Not at all. She had, earlier, sparred with her older cousin Neji, who had held no blows back and absolutely devastated her. That lead to her father and most other main branch members deriding and insulting her. As usual._

 _She had been allowed to leave the compound with Ko, her caretaker, but she had split off from him along the way, goodness knows how._

 _Which lead to her situation right now, with three academy students, probably 3 or 4 years older than her, picking on her._

 _"She's gotta be as stuck up as all those other white eyed bastards! Always thinking they're so high and mighty because of their freaky eyes! Hey, you think you're better than us?"_

 _The other boys called their agreement, before the 'leader' spoke up._

 _"Apologize for thinking you're better than us!"_

 _Hinata's mouth had started moving, both no sound came out. The 'leader' of the three boys leaned in at that._

 _"Ehh? I can't hear a thing you say. Speak louder, freaky eyes!"_

 _"Shut the hell up, you morons. How disgraceful, for a trio of Academy students to pick on a 6 year old."_

 _Hinata turned towards the source of the voice, seeing a blonde-haired, orange-clad boy, his hands tucked inside his pockets, his face showing a look of abject boredom._

 _"The hell did you say, pipsqueak?"_

 _The blonde sighed loudly, removing one of his hands from his pocket before nonchallantly scratching the back of his head. After that, he pushed his pinky into his ear and seemed to be clearing it out as he spoke._

 _"I said that the three of you are trash for trying to pick on a 6 year old girl."_

 _The three kids were seething at that, before something clicked in the mind of the leader._

 _"Hey, this is that kid! The one our moms said was bad news!"_

 _"Yeah! Mine said to stay away from him!"_

 _"Mine told me to show him that he didn't deserve to live here, and to show him that real people are better than freaks wearing human skin. I don't know what any of that means, but we should show him his place anyway. You don't just speak to future shinobi like that!"_

 _The three boys charged Naruto, and Hinata could only witness in awe and wonder as the blonde ducked, dodged and weaved past any and all attacks from the three boys. Soon enough the three of them were panting and gasping, while the blonde had barely broken a sweat. The three boys decided to run away, leaving Hinata with her blonde saviour._

 _"A-ano... Thank you... For saving me."_

 _Hinata managed to get that out of her mouth, watching as he saviour returned his hand to his pocket and shrugged._

 _"Eh, strong people are saving weak people all the time."_

 _Hinata felt a sense of sadness flow through her at that, even as an inkling of irritation moved through her face._

 _"I-... I'm sorry."_

 _"No need to apologize, miss. After all, it's the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak, and it's the shame of the weak to burden the strong, ne?"_

 _The twinge of irritation returned even more pronounced, a spasm going through Hinata's eyebrow as her sad frown clashed with an annoyed one._

 _"It's not like that..."_

 _"It isn't, really? Because I honestly don't see how someone who had been raised from their cradle learning about the Hyuuga Juuken could simply let three punks with no formal training to speak of gang up on her like that and leave unscathed. Did you even see their moves? They were absolutely horrible. If you let those three push you around, then the only conclusion is that you're weaker than them."_

 _"ME! WEAKER THAN THEM!? PREPOSTEROUS!"_

 _Naruto raised an eyebrow at the outburst, even as Hinata's eyes widened, her hand covering her mouth as her face turned into a mask of sorrow and regret._

 _"I-I'm sorry for that."_

 _"No, no, you're not getting away from this that easily."_

 _Before she could question what was happening, Naruto had taken one of her hands and dragged her away towards a secluded clearing._

 _On an unrelated note, Hyuuga Ko had just been hit with a ballon filled with green paint, dirtying his robes and having been lead on a merry chase around the village by a cackling 6 year old blond. The fact that said 6 year old seemed to always stay at the same distance from him did not even strike his mind, otherwise he'd have noticed how bizarre it was that he couldn't catch the child, no matter how much he kept speeding up._

 _At the clearing, Naruto lazily looked at Hinata before speaking._

 _"You said you weren't weaker than them. Show me, then."_

 _"I... I don't think that's a good idea."_

 _"Oh, so you can talk big, but you don't have the guts to back it up? Not only a weakling, but a liar as well."_

 _Hinata's eyebrows starting spasming wildly at that, a red tint rising to her face that had nothing to do with embarrassment. In what would have been a blur of motion for civillians, and most other children her age, Hinata was upon the blonde, her fingers striking out fast and hard, the veins around her eyes bulging, as she showed the blonde what she thought about his words._

 _Naruto, for his part, was having an exhilarating time. He had no one his age as his friend, to train or practice with. His only training partners were Shisui and Itachi, and they completely and absolutely destroyed him every time they fought._

 _Seeing that Hinata had sped up further, Naruto removed his hands from his pockets and started interspersing his dodges and weaves with parries._

 _Hinata managed to, in a moment of poor attention, strike at the tenketsu on the blonde's arms..._

 _Only for him to vanish into a wooden log, before two others identical to him popped up at either side of her, holding both of her arms down tight before a very sharp Kunai was pressed against her throat, causing her to gulp, her anger having receded._

 _Naruto pulled his Kunai back, the clones dispersing as he took a seat on the grass next to the Hyuuga girl._

 _"You're pretty damn strong, my numb arms tell me that. Then, why were you letting those boys pick on you?"_

 _"..."_

 _"I'm sorry, what was that?"_

 _"I'm scared."_

 _Naruto had a gobsmacked look at that._

 _"Afraid of what? You would've whooped their butts!"_

 _"You don't understand! I... I have to deal with bad things everyday, and whenever something like that happens, I just get so angry... I know that if I fight back, I'll lose control and hurt them badly. Like I tried to do to you..."_

_"So the reason you don't fight back is because you don't want to hurt them?"_

 _At Hinata's nod, Naruto deadpanned._

 _"That's really stupid. If people provoke or attack you, you should fight back. Allowing them to go free isn't being kind, being kind is kicking their asses to make sure they don't do the same thing to a person that will actually hurt them badly, or even kill them."_

 _Before Hinata could speak up, Naruto continued._

 _"Well... It's not really your fault you're so angry. But, locking down that anger can cripple you, both emotionally, and your fighting. Fighting styles come from your feelings and personality, ignoring a part of you is willingly ignoring a part of yourself that could make you stronger."_

 _Hinata and Naruto both sat pensively for a while, before the blonde stood up._

 _"I've decided. From now on, whenever we make time, we'll be training together. I'll help you unleash your anger as much as you need, and you'll be a sparring partner to help me get stronger... And a friend. Okay?"_

 _As he said that, Naruto stretched his hand out. He was nervous, this was one of the few times he had actually extended his hand out in friendship, having seen that the girl didn't hold the same prejudice towards him that the others tend to have._

 _He was pleasantly surprised, and completely delighted, when the girl took hold of his hand, letting herself stand up and giving him a not-so-shy smile._

 _"I'm Hyuuga Hinata, and I'd like to be your friend. I'd also like to accept your help with my problem."_

 _Naruto grinned widely at that, and to Hinata it looked like the world has just brightened up considerably as he spoke through his grin._

 _"Great! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I promise that I'll help you as much as I can, and I'll become the strongest shinobi in the world, -Ttebayo!"_

 _Hinata giggled lightly at Naruto's silliness as she spoke._

 _"Then I promise to always grow strong as well, and become the strongest Kunoichi in the world!"_

 _The two children parted ways amicably at that, and spent as much time as possible training and spending time together, solidifying their friendship. Eventually, as soon as they started puberty and somewhat understood the concept of love, Naruto and Hinata decided that they'd always be together, come hell or high water._

 _Their oath was made in their clearing, and solidified with Naruto telling Hinata of his burden, and her promise never to judge him or abandon him for it._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

She had promised to get strong, and she would.

Using her Byakugan, she started testing the effects of elemental chakra being fed to and through muscles. Having noticed a few notable effects, she focused on training through Kage Bunshin to get at least the first level of elemental manipulation down for all elements, though water and earth came more easily to her than any others.

Having gotten the basic manipulations down, she had adapted her Juuken to take the traits of those elements.

Feeding fire-natured chakra to her muscles caused them to start slowly warming up, getting them closer and closer to maximum performance as she fought on, her attacks, like fire, being swift and effective in the consumption of it's prey. Her attacks picked up pace overtime, eventually consuming the opponent in her agressivity, even as her pokes left burns in the opponent's targeted chakra points and internal organs.

Water-natured chakra loosened her muscles, making her more flexibly. He Juuken strikes flowed easily enough around the oponent as a river around a boulder, able to just barely stay out of their reach and avoiding it's attacks. Her juuken became more reactive, relying on counters and grabs, holds and locks. Her finger's strikes left some water-natured chakra in her target zones, 'watterlogging' the flow of chakra in the affected area and forcing the victim to spend time and chakra expunging the foreing chakra out of their system.

Wind-natured chakra made her fast, the fastest of any other styles. She moved with the swiftness and ease of the wind, engaging and disengaging at a whim. Her attacks could be as sharp as a blade of wind, or as crushing as gale-force hurricanes. The wind-powered finger thrusts cut the target of the strikes, creating various different slashes in the chakra points which caused chakra to leak and generated crippling pain during chakra use, as Naruto could attest to, and to the organs or muscles she aimed them to.

Lightning-natured chakra increased not the overall speed of her body like the wind one, but the spontaneous, explosive movement, like a swift thunderbolt. This style allowed her to initiate with surprisingly fast, and very spontaneous attacks, even as her nerve response was sped up in a bastardized, basic form of the fourth Raikage's lightning chakra armor, increasing her reaction time and ability to create plans, and allowing her to respond to stimuli nigh-instantly. Using this style, her finger thrusts left a numb feeling in the targeted area, and could leave either numbness, paralysis or electrical burns.

Earth-natured chakra temporarily increased the strength and density of her bones, muscles, and even her tenketsu and internal organs, protecting even her insides against the Juuken itself. This style was based around defending, defending and defending. Hinata could sense minute vibrations on the ground around her, allowing her fast response to earth-based attacks, while her physical resistance and limited tankability gave her the time to create a strategy to defeat her oponent. When not defending like the fortress she became, Hinata could deliver extremely strong blows, as if the earth itself was lashing out at you. Her thrusts temporarily left enemy tenketsu in a petrified state, impossibilitating enemy chakra flow. As a set up, this was the most dangerous style after lightning.

 _ **-11th month-**_

The mood in the living area had become almost unbearable for everyone.

Kushina had somewhat broken down from Kiyomi's constant torture, eventually allowing herself to try and pleasure herself with thoughts of Naruto, justifying it to herself as nothing more than fantasy, but even that wasn't enough. After having spent so much time denying herself release and satisfaction, her attempts at self-pleasure only left her yearning for more instead of sated, as she expected. That, in turn, made her very irritable, and everyone was constantly walking on eggshells around her.

Any simple provocation would set her off, and she had started to, even if unknown by herself, eye and oggle Naruto hungrily, while glaring jealously at the girls who were involved with him.

Naruto himself was also proving to be a hard time. Literally.

Kiyomi's teasing, and Kushina's smouldering looks had him raring to go almost 24/7, and Shizune, Fuu and Hinata held a sense of terrified, yet expectant, anticipation, for any occasion during which he'd take them physically. He always did his best to absolutely destroy them, leaving his partners as a quivering pile of sore flesh and intense orgasms, but it still wasn't enough.

Naruto had even taken to bedding Mashiro and Kei, which helped slightly ease the burden of the others, especially Kei as her body could take much more than any of the other girls, and that caused even further jealousy in Kushina.

Kiyomi wasn't having it any easier herself. Her teasing was a double-edged knife, and while unlike Kushina she had no compunctions about pleasuring herself, she found a suspicious lack of phallic objects in whichever room she seemed to be in alone. Her fingers alone were giving her none of the needed relief, and she knew it was somehow Naruto's fault. The blonde had been doing his best to get her as riled up as she had been doing to him.

Things came to a head eventually, as they always do.

 _ **-Training field-**_

"Now, Naruto, this technique that I intend to teach you is called the Seikukn, it is suited to fighters of calm and composed spirit, and-"

" **UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE NARUTO!** "

Kushina's bellow had everyone else scrambling away from the area, leaving only a sweating Naruto to take the brunt of her anger.

' _Shit, she's in one of her rages again. Couldn't I just Hiraishin away?... No, she'll only get more troublesome if I do._ '

Somewhere outside the time chamber, a certain pineapple-haired teen sneezed. before complaining about troublesome blondes.

Naruto turned around to face Kushina, his chest bare, a sheen of sweat glistening over and around his chiseled muscles.

"Yes, mo-!"

He was surprised by the redhead's sudden kiss.

Well, it wasn't really a kiss. It was more akin to her trying to rape his mouth.

He was still stunned an dazed when Kushina pulled back from the kiss and gripped his collar.

"You, young man, are going to take me to one of the bedrooms, and screw the fuck out of me. I swear to Kami that if you don't have me at least limping like you do your girlfriends, I am going to separate you from something you are very much attached to!"

Those words lead to the now-infamous Uzumaki session of 7 days.

For seven whole days, Naruto and Kushina only ever left the presence of eachother to use the bathroom. Even eating was done together, and meals were more awkward than ever before as the two Uzumaki's were prone to simply tackling eachother over the table, and start doing the dirty right then and there.

There was a reason people stopped eating meals at the dinner table. And stopped sitting on the living room love seat. And stopped using the third floor bathroom.

After 7 straight days of relief, however, the two Uzumaki finally returned to socializing with the others in more than tired groans and grunts, and Kushina finally stopped being one huge case of PMS.

After that, it was Kiyomi and Kei who occupied Naruto. The twins decided to take him on at the same time, and despite the fact that they are Bijuu, their stamina was truly put to the test. Naruto had the drooling and limping for days.

After all of that happened, he group managed to return to their training.

And like that, the group's period in time compression came to an end.

Naruto wasn't anticipating the shitstorm that would end up meeting him as soon as he set his feet outside.

 **-TBC-**

 **Well, plot advancement. Naruto's relationship with Kushina advanced, not as parent and child, but as man and woman.**

 **Hinata, Shizune and Fuu grew stronger, while Naruto mastered his Mokuton and his Rinnegan as well as he could in a 6 month window. We've set up some of the main group this chapter, but the events of the previous one and the things that've happened outside of time compression will start bearing effect in the next chapter.**

 **Until then, hold tight! Please, leave a Review, Follow and favorite.**

 **FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	32. C-ranks and New Leaders

_**Not mine!**_

"Hello, fresh- GHURGH!"

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto's reacquaintance with natural fresh air and actual sunlight was cut short by the ' **Fist of Love™** ' from the busty blonde Senju hitting his face...

Or it would have, had he not reflexively used the ' **Kawarimi** '.

' _Praise the Log, for the Log provides..._ '

Turning his attention back to Tsunade, he saw the woman was absolutely enraged. Her nostrils were flaring, her fist was clenched and trembling, her eyebrows were having a a set of seizures and her eyes were practically burning through him with the intensity of her glare.

Raising his hands in surrender, Naruto spoke up.

"I probably deserved that, since I know you better than most wouldn't try to hit me for no reason, so... I'm sorry?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say.

"You're sorry? YOU'RE SORRY? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE APOLOGIZING FOR?"

' _Not really, but I know you'll make sure I interiorize it..._ ' Naruto thought, before answering uncertainly.

"...No?"

Tsunade fumed, before answering.

"I'll tell you what happened. First, your clone shows up and tells me you were going to be gone for a week, which you didn't even involve me while knowing how I'd rather stay away from the village for the most part; then, in he middle of the week, while we were in the Senju compound having... _coffe..._ The clone suddenly makes a pained face, clutches his chest, and turns into a puddle of blood! Do you know how worried I was? DO you know how much of a bitch it is to wash blood off of silk? And those were whole new panties! Explain yourself!"

Naruto winced at Tsunade's words, even as the others around him grimaced, and put distance from the two blondes to avoid any potential crossfire. Naruto braced himself for impact, taking a deep, though subtle, steadying breath before speaking out as non-challantly as he could.

"Oh, that? My heart just stopped for like, 5 minutes. Nothing much."

The others cringed at that, moving themselves further away as they watched Tsunade's eyebrow twitching extremely.

"I believe I misheard you. It sounded to me as if you had said that your heart stopped for 5 minutes?"

"You didn't, and it did."

"Your heart stopped. For five minutes."

"Indeed."

"Explain!"

Naruto started sweating at her hash tone. It was a tone that promised chakra-enhanced blows to sensitive appendages that he happened to be very attached to.

"Well, you see, it's got to do with the second favour I asked you back then. I went through with it, and my body shut down to adapt to the new abilities. Usually I'd just go unconscious for a while, but a very powerful, very dead old man wanted to talk to me, so he caused me a near-death experience which resulted in me getting superpowers that I can't use at the risk of killing myself and everybody around me. After that I woke up with a new pair of eyeballs and your grandfather's powers, so you see, everything's fine and you don't need to hurt me!"

Naruto spoke out in a nervous rush, and as he spoke Tsunade's face went stone hard, causing him to sweat further. When he finished his speech, Naruto was surprised by a super-speed chakra-powered slap slamming against his cheek, the shockwave powerful enough to shake the hair and clothes of those around them, though his head jerked to the side only as if he had been on the receiving end of a regular, civillian-level slap, with a red handprint marking his cheek.

Tsunade spoke in a stern tone.

"Never again, Uzumaki Naruto. I've already lost Dan, Nawaki, and almost everyone else that meant anything to me. If you died, I don't think I could go on... So, you are forbidden to die. Promise me!"

Naruto sighed out loud, pulling the stiff-backed, stone faced Tsunade into a tight hug before murmmuring softly into her hair.

"I promise, Tsu-chan. I won't die. I won't leave you. I swear it on my honor."

Tsunade burrowed her face into his chest, her shoulders shaking even as her tears started seeping into Naruto's shirt. Naruto only cooed and rubbed Tsunade's back as the Sannin vented her worries and grief.

Having recovered for the most part, Tsunade pulled back from Naruto, smiling weakly and tentatively at Naruto before speaking.

"You're still going to pay to replace my panties, and my bedsheets. Probably even my matress."

Naruto grinned cheekily at that, thumbing his nose as he responded.

"Only if I get to see you both wearing them, and taking them off."

Tsunade let out an honest laught at that, before pulling Naruto into a deep kiss.

And like that, mount Blondoom's eruption was averted.

 _ **-1 Week Later-**_

"Jounin Uzumaki reporting for duty, sir!"

Naruto stood in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen, within the Hokage's office, garbed in a tight, short-sleeved, blue shirt, a custom-made Jounin vest over that, with the Uzumaki swirl on the back being actually a bundle of chakra-engraved seals for temperature, comfort and color control, a pair of deep blue ANBU cargo pants, close-toedboots with steel soles and tips for extra damage with kicks and immunity to caltrops and such, and his white coat with orange whirlpools around the hem at the botom, torn sleeves, and orange kanji on the back saying ' _ **Legacy**_ '. Paired with his steel-hard blue eyes, his spiky, wild, blond hair, and his serious expression with three marks on each cheek, he truly cut in an imposing figure.

Naruto had been summoned to the Hokage's office, the summons making their way to him through ANBU Bear, and being a high-priority, S-rank situation.

Hiruzen eyed Naruto thoughtfully, his hands steepled over his mouth, elbows placed on his desk, before he spoke up.

"Jounin Uzumaki, you are currently present because the Mizukage is currently here in the village, waiting just outside my office. She claims to have come with important information regarding the safety of both yourself and the village, information she claims to require S-rank secrecy. As your Hokage, my stipulation for the message to be delivered to you was my presence, as S-rank secrets are to not be kept from the village leader. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded silently, despite the fact that he was severely holding out on the old man in regards to S-rank informatin.

' _Ehh, he kept me in the dark about Kei-chan and my parents for long enough. Turnabout is fair play, after all._ '

"I agree, Hokage-Sama. This information should be discussed in your presence, as you could possess a specific perspective or point of view that might lead to said problem being solved easier."

That was basically the roundabout way of saying ' _Even if it has nothing to do with you, the fact that you wear the hat and sit on the chair makes sure you get to be nosy about it._ '

At Naruto's assent, the Hokage summoned the Mizukage into his office, the figure of Terumi Mei walking in with a serious face that Naruto wasn't used to seeing.

The Mizukage turned towards the Hokage, giving him a nod of respect and thanks, before turning towards Naruto, and dropping the bombshell off the bat.

"Yagura was being controlled."

Naruto's gaze met Mei's, while he said.

"Please, start from the beggining."

Mei nodded, before pulling a copy of Yagura's journal from one of her dress pockets, tossing it towards Naruto. As Naruto opened the journal and started reading through it, Mei spoke.

"We always wondered what took Yagura, a Jinchuuriki, to start a war over bloodlines claiming them to be 'freaks of nature'. Some thought that it was his bijuu controlling him, others thought that he went crazy with power, and others even believed that he was always rotten on the inside, and was simply good at hiding it. The things in the journal say that none of those are the truth.

Sometime before the start of the bloodline purges, Yagura started getting periods of unconsciousness, with blanks in his memories, and when he came to, he seemed to have given his shinobi orders that did not make sense, were controversial, or unexpected. The blanks started increasing in frequency as time wore on, and eventually his consciousness vanished altogether for a great while.

When he came to for the first time in a long while, the purges were already occuring. Knowing that he would be unable to do much as the blanks would keep coming, he started to use every opportunity possible to both help as many people as possible, which explains the various stays of execution, prisioner escorts that made no sense, and transferences, giving the bloodline rebellion time and opportunity to save as many lives as possible; and to write down a log of everything that happened to him, and what caused him to do as he did. That is exactly what that Journal is, and it says-..."

Naruto broke in at that, his face stone hard.

"It says that his actions were the fault of a sharingan belonging to a man in a black cloak with red clouds."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed at that.

"Itachi?"

Naruto shook his head in response.

"The purges started a good while ago. The Uchiha were still alive, and Itachi was still in Konoha. This was another sharingan user, perhaps an Uchiha, or someone with Uchiha eyes, that works in Akatsuki."

After that, Naruto's narrowed eyes evolved into his Eternal Mangekyo, as he spoke with anger.

"This is probably the same Uchiha that ripped the Kyuubi from my mother in the day I was born."

Hiruzen and Mei's eyes widened at that, even as Naruto kept speaking.

"When I meet this bastard, I will make sure to pay him back for all the evil he's done hundred-fold."

Turning towards Mei, Naruto bowed at the waist in deference.

"Thank you for the information, Mizukage-sama."

Mei's eyebrow twitched at that, her arm twitching as it desired to go towards her mouth in order to use her lava jutsu.

"Naruto-kun... How many times have I told you to call me Mei-chan before?"

"Many, many times."

"Well, there you have it. If you don't call me Mei-chan, I will melt off what makes you a man."

Naruto grinned cheekily as he answered.

"Sorry, Mei-sama, won't happen again Mei-sama."

Mei's eyebrows twitched even further at that, her smile sickly sweet and creeping out both Hiruzen and the ANBU hidden in the corners of the room. As she lifted her hand to her mouth, Naruto vanished in a flash of orange.

Where the blonde previously stood, now there was something resembling a business card, which Mei bent over to pick up, before reading it.

' _You look cute when you're mad, Mei-chan._ '

Mei's anger vanished instantly, replaced with a sultry look and a happy aura. The 180 in emotions further scared the people in the room, causing the Hokage to utter a prayer for his life.

"Hokage-sama, where does Uzumaki Naruto live?"

"Well, he lives at his clan compound, somewhat away from the main districts of the village. Why do you ask, Mizukage-dono?"

"Well, I decided that for any of my future stays in Konoha, I will have the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan hosting me. If, that is not too hard a request to grant, Hokage-dono."

Hiruzen nodded lightly at that.

"It is an easy to grant request. I shall have the Uzumaki clanhead informed of his new responsibility."

Mei nodded once again in respect to the Hokage.

"Thank you very much, Hokage-dono."

And like that, Naruto's home found itself another inhabitant, as sporadic as her presence might be.

 _ **-Two weeks later-**_

"Team 7 reporting for a mission."

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura had gone to the mission assignment office in the hopes of catching a C-rank mission. After the Sound's attack on leaf during the chunnin exams, most genin had been limited to doing D-ranks, mostly rebuilding, supply runs, and information running, while the higher ranked shinobi worked overtime on the higher-ranked missions.

After the leaf's display during the exams, and how they repelled the attack, the number of mission requests rose even as the material damage from enemy shinobi, and the deaths of leaf shinobi were processed.

Very recently had Kakashi been able to exit crunch time doing A and S-ranks, and since then he had been training the remaining genin of team 7 to make sure they were as ready as possible for whatever challenge was thrown their way.

This was their first mission since then, and he intended to go for a C-rank to help them get back into the rhythm of things.

"Any preferences, Kakashi?"

"C-rank. Something simple, escort if possible."

"Well, we have one to escort a famous actress, Fujikaze Koyuki, during the filming of her latest movie..."

The members of team 7 got a chill down their spine at that declaration, an ominous feeling settling on the pit of their stomachs, as the mission reminded them of their first C-rank for whatever reason.

' _Surely it won't become an A-rank like the first one..._ '

 _ **-Two weeks later-**_

"I can't fucking believe it. Another C-rank that becomes an A-rank. Just how shitty does my luck have to be?"

Kakashi was complaining to himself at once again having mission parameters faked, leading his genin to a mission of a higher rank than he deemed them ready for. After having confronted a group of nin wearing some kind of technological armor on an iceberg, they were told by the client that Fujikaze Yukie, the actress, was actually _Kazahana_ Koyuki, the princess of snow country that Kakashi had rescued during his younger years from a ruthless dictator, which was her uncle, and his elite shinobi, Roga Nadare, which he confronted once again in the iceberg.

He had sent a letter telling Konoha of the events, not willing to pull a repeat Wave as they didn't have Naruto to pull something out of his ass to make things go better than they had any right to, asking for backup, and they were expecting the backup for a while now.

To make things worse, Koyuki seemed to have found a small window of opportunity to run away from the caravan, forcing the recording team to go after her in the snow.

They had caught up to her, but found themselves facing a train on top of a set of rails, with various different slits with round metal... things on them, aimed straight at them. Said metal things started making whirring noises, before a veritable shower of steel flew towards them, thousands of Kunai flying towards the entire group.

' _Even with the sharingan I'd have a hard time keeping myself alive from this shower of Kunai..._ '

" **Shinra Tensei!** "

Kakashi was surprised by a voice that he knew very well speaking up in a powerful tone, causing all of the Kunai to be slammed into by what seemed to be an invisible concussive force, deflecting some, but breaking or smushing the rest.

Seein the kanji for ' **Legacy** ' on the back of a white ankle-length coat with a mane of blonde hair on display brought him a sense of nostalgia like you wouldn't believe, causing the man to speak up.

"Thank Kami, Yami, Shinigami and the holy log. Naruto, I haven't ever been more glad to see you than I am right now."

Naruto nodded in acknowledgement of Kakashi's words, even as the train sped off.

As soon as he was sure things were safe, Naruto turned towards the rest of team 7 and spoke.

"Well, I was working an infiltration nearby, when the backup request from the old man reached me. I finished as soon as I could, and came over. I was told to support you only, but I'd like to know the full breadth of the situation. This place seemed stable enough, so I don't have my intelligence agents here, which means that I'm not updated about stuff."

Kakashi nodded at that, lowering his headband and making his way towards Naruto even as Sasuke and Sakura composed themselves from their near-death experience, alongside the rest of the filming crew.

"The one we were hired to protect happens to be a princess from snow country. Her uncle killed her father and years ago, when I was still young, and I was given the mission to extract her. Now her father's retainer wants our help to depose the uncle, Kazahana Doto, and instate her as the rightful ruler of the country. Koyuki doesn't want anything to do with this situation, but the client was Sandayu so... Nothing we can do for her."

Naruto nodded at that.

"I understand. Things are more complicated than previously thought... Hey, Kakashi. This is team 7's second C-rank and it turned into an A-rank again. Do you think It's going to turn into a trend?"

The cyclop's shoulders slumped as he spoke.

"I really hope not. Troublesome."

"Careful, if Shikaku hears you he's gonna sue you, and you know how stupid it is to get into a legal argument with the Nara clan."

Kakashi shivered at that.

"Lazy bastards can't lift a finger from their bed, but their sense of logic and argumentation is a nightmare when they really try."

"Well, leaving that aside, let me have a little talk with Koyuki and then take care of this Doto sleazebag."

Kakashi nodded, knowing that Naruto knew his way around inspirational speeches, and had a charisma that even the fourth and first would've been jealous of.

Naruto walked off towards the assembled group, snatching Koyuki up and throwing her over his shoulder against all of Sandayu, her father's retainer, and her protests, before taking her outside of earshot from the group.

Every single person, both from team 7, the filming crew, and the resistance of Snow country could only watch in wonder and fascination as in 15 minutes, Naruto 's words had the princess going from apathetic, to sad, to angry, slapping the blonde, before giving his tonsils a tongue exam.

By the time they returned to the rest of the group, Koyuki was hugging onto Naruto's arm with no intention of letting go, leaving the whole group dumbfounded.

Her following words only added to it.

"I'll do it, Sandayu. I'll take the leadership of Snow, after Naru-kun here takes care of uncle Doto."

At her declaration of Naru-kun, Kakashi and every other male in the group with the exception of Sasuke turned towards the blonde, sitting in seiza before bowing deeply, their foreheads touching the snow.

Kakashi spoke for the group.

"Please teach us your ways, Naruto-sama."

Naruto chuckled awkwardly even as Sasuke, Sakura and Koyuki sweatdropped at that.

 _ **-3 Hours later-**_

"Damn you're an ugly motherfucker."

Naruto's words had a vein throbbing on Kazahana Doto's forehead from his seat on the throne of Snow country. Ignoring his comment, the armor-clad man spoke.

"It was kind of you to deliver my dear niece directly to me, mister Shinobi. Unfortunately to you, for your disrespectful comment, I cannot simply let you go. Nadare, Fubuki, Mizore. Deal with him."

After a few seconds passed, Doto was confused. His people hadn't moved from where they stood. He turned his neck, ready to bark out an order, only to see them slumped over on the ground, their throats slashed out.

He turned back towards the blonde and his niece, only to find himself punched through the walls of his fortress the blow dazing him, until he landed hard on a bank of snow, in the area that he had been told the secret of Snow lied by his brother before his death. The area had an hexagon-shaped indent, seemingly matching the necklace his niece had around her neck, and various spires of reflective ice arrayed around them.

His attention was shifted when an orange flash deposited the blonde a few paces away from him, said blonde looking around the clearing curiously.

"You know, this country is hella beautiful. As soon as you're dead and buried, it'll probably become a tourist destination."

"Not a bad idea at all, kid. After I kill you, I'll open this place up for turistic tours. Should rake in more dough. That dough, together with the secret of Snow, will allow me to stand on pair with the five great nations, and will be the start of my conquering campaing."

Naruto shook his head at that.

"I don't think you get it. As we speak, the rest of my team and the rebellion are liberating the rest of the country. Your stooges and foot soldiers are being taken down by droves. Your prized enforcers were effortlessly killed by me in an instant. Great work with the armor though, have to give you that. I'll have my people reverse-engineer it to see if they're any good for my enterprises. But, armor or not, I'll kill you now. You made Koyuki-chan cry, and that's unnaceptable."

Seething, Doto went through a few handsigns before calling out.

" **Ice Style: Black Dragon Blizzard!** " 

Some of the snow and ice around the field surged upwards, coalescing together into the shape of a serpentine black dragon with red eyes, which flew towards Naruto at a high speed. Naruto responded by making a single tiger handsign, before breathing in deeply, his cheeks and chest puffing up.

" **Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!** (Fire style: Great fireball technique)"

A fireball flew out of Naruto's mouth, slamming into the ice dragon and pushing against it. The dragon seemed to resist for a while, with the two moves pushing eachother back and forth, before the fire just barely won out, a weakened fireball managing to make it through to Doto and slamming into his armor, being nullified by it.

Doto grinned at that, seeing the superior capabilities of his armor.

"Did you see that? That was the difference in our power! Your strongest fireball barelly beat out my dragon, and my armor managed to ignore the rest, and I still have an even stronger jutsu! Take this! **Ice Style: Twin Dragon Blizzard**!"

Twin dragons made of black ice coalesced in the air, coiling around eachother, their glowing, red eyes glaring dangerously at Naruto as they flew towards him.

The blonde, for his part, stood there calmly.

' _Mhm... Let's make use of the fire affinity that the Rinnegan gave me... Oh, that director guy is filming, and he has me and Koyuki-chan in the shot, let's make this impressive and dramatic!_ '

Naruto glared the dragons down, as a ring of fire burst from beneath his feet, creating a ring of grass and flowers beneath him as the snow melted away.

"You're wrong!"

A second burst of fire emerged from around Naruto, before the ring split into two, creating flaming dragons that circled around the blonde, causing Doto to redirect his own ice dragons away, keeping them poised to attack Naruto.

The two flaming dragon heads emerged above each of Naruto's shoulders, their own eyes holding the same amount of steely determination as his.

"You aren't going to succeedm Doto! And do you know why? Because you're weak! You're too weak to be a good person! Too weak to do the right thing! Too weak to allow others into your heart, to make true friends, precious people! Too weak to accept the fact that the throne of this country does not belong to you, but to another!"

As Naruto spoke, the flaming dragons started rising, spinning around eachother, mimicked by the ice dragons, while Naruto kept his gaze on Doto's.

"And an important someone told me that true strength came from the desire to protect the ones that you love. And, because Koyuki-chan loves this country and it's people, like she did her father, and because I love Koyuki-chan, as I do many others in my life, I became strong! I endured, preservered! I made friends, created bonds! And now, I will use the power given to me by these bonds to make sure the people of Snow country don't have to suffer under you any longer!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the twin flaming dragons shot off towards Doto, being intercepted by the ice ones. Unlike the last clash, this one had the elemental dragons spinning, twirling, and coiling against eachother, as they would were they living entities, before the flaming dragons bit into the 'throats' of the ice dragons, before shooting towards Doto, slamming into the middle of his Chakra armor, creating a crack in it before dissipating.

' _Wow, the sun chose a really dramatic moment to rise. The lights are reflecting on all these ice crystals... I know what move I'll use now._ '

Naruto put his rand hand forward, a blue, spiraling sphere materializing on top of his hand. The lights of the various reflective crystals started somewhat tinging the sphere, causing it to shine in various colours.

Naruto started dashing towards Doto, dashing being a relative term as he ran at low-genin speeds in order for the camera to register him, and to give him time for a dramatic pronounciation, with Doto unable to do anything as the armor was malfunctioning and not allowing him to even weave hand signs, much less move.

"This is the power of Snow country and it's people, Doto! It's the power that will defeat you! **Rainbow Rasengan**!"

Naruto stretched his arm out early, allowing the camera to register the magnificently gleaming rainbow-coloured sphere as it got closer and closer to Doto, Naruto's face a mask of determination as his technique slammed into the man's armor, grinding into it. After a dramatic pause, Naruto shouted out.

"GO!"

And wiith that shout, Doto was projected away by the concussive force behind the technique, his armor shattering in the air before the rasengan burst, releasing a massive rainbow that could be seen from all over the country.

Koyuki ran towards Naruto, pulling him into a deep hug.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun! You saved me and my country, from Doto, from the past... From myself."

Naruto smiled softly at Koyuki at that.

"No, Koyuki. I might have beat Doto, but it was you who gathered the strength to get over your hurt and embrace your responsibility to lead and protect your people."

Koyuki nodded at that, her eyes shining, before she eyed the Hexagon-shaped indent on the ground, a pensive look overtaking her face.

She broke away from the hug, making her way towards the indent, before removing the necklace she sported and pushing the hexagonal crystal into said indent.

They were all surprised by a very loud, groaning whirr, before the snow started melting completely off of the ground, revealing green grass, blooming flowers, and beautiful nature all around. The only things untouched were the ice pillars that previously reflected the light, now reflecting and amplifying the rainbow made by Naruto's rasengan.

Koyuki spoke up at that.

"So this is what father meant when he said that Spring would one day come to our country..."

Naruto grinned at Koyuki before speaking up cheekily.

"I guess Snow country no longer fits the description, huh?"

Koyuki smiled back at him, before answering.

"I guess not... In honor of my father, I'm renaming this nation to snow country. And in honor to you, I'll be naming this 'The Great Naruto Clearing'."

Naruto smiled sheepishly, before being surprised by Koyuki pulling him into a deep kiss, which he reciprocated to by wrapping his arms around her waist.

And like that, under the rainbow, a new era began for what was once the Snow Country, now Spring Country.

"CUT! PERFECT! I couldn't have asked for a better shot than this!"

Koyuki, surprised, turned towards the director.

"You were here all along?"

"Indeed I was, and I have to say, this is going to sell like hot bread when it comes out in cinemas! A story about an actual princess, and a hero arriving fashionably late to help save her country from an evil dictator! And that dragon thing, that was amazing!"

Naruto smirked smugly at that.

"I know, I used the dragons to put on a show."

Koyuki looked at Naruto with a hurt look.

"You were doing it all for the camera? You didn't mean what you said?"

Naruto turned towards Koyuki, giving her a serious look as he spoke.

"I meant every and each word I said. Well, I might have exagerated on the love, we've met recently, but I _do_ like what i've come to know of you, and about you. With more time, the feelings could grow further."

Koyuki let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. Now let's get out of here please, I'm really tired.

Naruto snickered, before answering.

"Of course, queen Koyuki."

 _ **-2 weeks later-**_

"I can't believe we'll be in the next princess Gale movie!"

Naruto grinned at that.

"Believe it, Sakura. Not only will we be in it, we'll be starring with proeminent roles alongside Koyuki-chan."

"I still can't believe you've made her fall for you in 15 minutes. Naruto, how the hell do you do it?"

Naruto shrugged at that.

"I already told you, my biggest strength are my _**Powerful Speeches**_."

When Naruto said those two words, everyone around him could feel the sheer power and respect that the blond held towards them.

Kakashi spoke up after that.

"The Hyuuga Heiress, the Mizukage, the daughter of the previous Kazekage, the Senju and Inuzuka clanheads, and now the Queen, former princess of Spring Country... Careful Naruto, otherwise you might soon have an empire on your hands."

Naruto waved Kakashi off carelessly.

"Sorry, but that sounds like it'd generate too much paperwork. Not my thing, really."

Everyone sweatdropped at that reasoning, before they all went back to their celebrations.

 _ **-1 month Later-**_

"Team 7 reporting for a mission, sir!"

After having had three C-ranks turning into A-rank, Wave, Waterfall and Snow, Kakashi was apprehensive at this, but Sasuke and Sakura had had a long downtime after their excursion towards Spring Country, formerly Snow, and were raring to go. The fact that, once again, Naruto was out of the village while this happened did not create much hope in his heart.

Hiruzen, somewhat reading through Kakashi's lazy demeanour to see the nervousness, could only chuckle inwardly. Mission rank ramping like that was a rare occurance, and it happened twice already, it couldn't happen to them again, right? No, it was improbable, nigh impossible for it to happen again.

"Well, I have a C-rank escort mission for you at Tea Country..."

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke could only groan at that.

 _ **-A few days later, Tea country-**_

"Why."

Hatake Kakashi could only lament as he faced off against Kushimaru Kuriarare, Kiri missing nin, one of Yagura's loyalists and missing nin ever since his leader had been taken down. He had managed to evade the Kiri hunter nin corps so far, and he had to simply take on this one specific assignment.

As he dodged the thrusts of Kuriarare's Nuibari, a thin, extremely sharp-pointed sword with nearly unmatched piercing power, Kakashi worried lightly about the enemies his students fought.

Sakura had been fending off Kagura Shiomizu, another of Yagura's loyalists and a low-chunnin, their fighting strengths matched evenly, while Sasuke somewhat struggled against Moikichi Akenasu, a low-jounin level loyalist, part of Kuriarare's old squad formed after the separation of the seven swordsmen.

The Uchiha had his Sharingan active, being able to just barely avoid the slashes and thrusts of his enemy's wakizashi, retaliating by swinging around his lightning-coated hand. Using his eye's predictive capabilities, he had managed to reduce the damage he took to a few shallow slashes and gashes, on the other hand causing his enemy some electric burns.

But, his enemy could simply ignore the burnt flesh, while he was going low on chakra, as he was mantaining his Chidori for a good few minutes. The entire battle between the two gennin and the missing nin were made on the move, as the enemies tried to keep as close as possible to Morino Idate, the individual team 7 was supposed to protect, as his results in a foot race would end up deciding which family would gain the headship of Tea country.

Sakura, in a moment of innatentiveness, stepped on a mud puddle, slipping and falling backwards.

Her enemy, capitalizing on the chance, shot off towards Idate. Sasuke intended on disengaging to block their path, but his enemy forced him to dodge lest he lost his head. Sasuke watched in slow motion as Shiomizu's held Kunai got closer and closer to Idate's neck...

Before Naruto dropped on top of her, his rasengan slamming into her back and probably breaking it at least.

Sasuke let out a breath of relief, before refocusing on his enemy. Knowing that as long as Naruto was there Idate was safe, the Uchiha could focus completely on his enemy.

He reared his arm back, telegraphing a straightforward charge at his enemy while thrusting his lightning-clad arm forward. Moikichi twisted to the side, removing his heart from Sasuke's reach, and watched as the lightning coating the boy's arm disappeared, presumably due to chakra exhaustion. He raised his Wakizashi, intent on slashing the raven-haired teen open...

Before said teen disappeared in a burst of speed, his legs clad in chakra, reappearing under him and kicking him upwards in a mimickry of a move he had seen Rock Lee practicing one day, before jumping up to be under his oponent. He went for a side kick which got blocked hard, using the reflected strength of the block for momentum as he swung around, delivering a backfist to the oponent's chest, having been blocked again by crossed arms, before his leg joined the equation, slamming into Moikichi's gut and throwing him downwards, hard.

Making three handsigns, Sasuke allowed lighting to coat his hand before falling towards his enemy, his hand spearing straight through his heart.

Having finished off Moikichi, Sasuke removed his head and sealed it in a scroll to claim his bounty, before helping Sakura up and moving to catch up with Idate.

The two caught up with Naruto and Idate, the blonde saluting them before vanishing in an orange flash. Ignoring his antics, Sasuke and Sakura kept moving with Idate until he crossed the finish line.

Kakashi, though, received a massive surprise in the form of his enemy suddenly losing his head. Literally.

Naruto had showed up behind Kuriarare, lopping off his head in a swift movement, letting the body fall like a puppet with it's strings cut off.

Relaxing his body from the exertion, and lowering his headband back over his eye, Kakashi spoke up.

"I think I hate C-ranks now. Zabuza, Minashi and Danzo's ROOT at Wave, that Suien guy at Waterfall and his flunkies, Doto in Spring, and now Kuriarare. Whenever we have a C-rank, I end up fighting an A-rank that is actually worth their salt. Why can't I just get an easy bandit extermination? Is that too much to ask?"

Naruto snickered slightly at that even as he sealed up Kuriarare's head and sword.

"Well, maybe it's Karma for making us wait for hours on end for you during team meetings. Or because you're constantly reading your smut in public. Maybe Kami, in all her gorgeous, sexy wisdom decided to punish you for that. Who knows."

"Gorgeous, sexy Wisdom? What guarantee do you have that Kami's a female? For all we know, Kami could be a man, genderless, or even a purple elephant."

Naruto scoffed at that.

"Kami encapsulates all that is good, right and powerful. Women are good. Beautiful women are good. Beautiful, sexy women are good. As you know, women are always right, and women are powerful, both on the conventional sense with my mom, Kiba's mom, Tsunade and so on and so forth as proof, and with the specific brand of power that mothers tend to have over their children, wives over husbands, and girlfriends over boyfriends. Only a female Kami would've given all of this power to women."

Kakashi shrugged at that.

"Can't refute your thought process."

As the two started making their ways toward then endline of the race where the client was waiting, Kakashi spoke up.

"Naruto, what're you going to do with Kuriarare's sword?"

"Eh, I'll mail it to Mei-chan, I'm sure she'll appreciate the gift. Plus, creating pollitical goodwill and all that jazz."

"...That second part is just an excuse, you really just want to send your girlfried, the Mizukage - and it sounds ridiculously weird that I can truthfully say this - a gift."

Naruto shrugged at that.

"Whatever you say, Kakashi. I'm just doing my duty."

The silver-haired jounin chuckled before opening his orange book. Five seconds after that, he tripped on a rock, hit a tree, had a beehive fall on top of him and his book flying into a mud puddle.

After enduring various bee stings and roasting the rest with a fire jutsu, Kakashi turned towards a grinning Naruto, before speaking up.

"You might be right about Kami, there, Naruto."

After that, team 7 reconvened with the client, getting a stamp of a mission success.

 _ **-At the same time, Hokage's office-**_

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage of the Konoha, sat across from Senju Tsunade, the blonde's arms crossed and her demeanor showing her sheer irritation.

"What did you call me here for, sensei?"

Hiruzen linked his hands together, placing them on top of his desk. Giving himself some time to think, Hiruzen decided to simply come out and speak up.

"Tsunade, I want you to take the seat of Hokage."

"Sure, I'll do it."

"You don't understand, Tsunade, I'm old, I- Wait, did you just accept?"

"...Yes? Sensei, have you been smoking something other than tobacco? Or is it the old age getting to you? Or..."

"No, no, none of those things. I simply find myself perplexed by your choice. To be honest, I expected you to tell me to go screw myself. So, if I may know, what changed your mind?"

"Naruto. His name is known all over the world, his power feared by those who would see our village as foes, or enemies. Other, less good people in this seat would try to use Naruto, his money, pollitical power, the respect that people from Wave, Spring and Water countries have for him, and his close ties to the Queen of snow country, and the Mizukage, not to mention his connection to S-rank individuals such as Furinji Hayato and Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai.

They would fail to get to him directly, which would lead to them targetting their precious people, various of which are active leaf shinobi. We both know how that would end."

Hiruzen had to wince at that image.

"Yes, it would end very badly."

Tsunade scoffed at that.

"That's an understatement if I ever heard one. Naruto would destroy any and everyone involved in the situation, which would lead to retaliation against him by their support base, which would eventually lead to civil war here in leaf. The ANBU respect him greatly and would get behind him, alongside people like Kakashi, Kurenai, Anko, Tsume and so on and so forth. Others, mostly the minor clans, and the shinobi forces in general who haven't had direct contact with Naruto and still harbor a dislike for him, which has bloomed into sheer envy at his achievements, would oppose that faction.

If a civil war erupted in leaf, Kiri would get behind Naruto, while I don't doubt that Iwa would join the opposite faction, just to find a justification to end Minato's bloodline. Kumo, I don't know how they would react, but their historical like for bloodlines could lead to attempts on Kushina for her Uzumaki blood, or members of the Hyuuga main branch, with Hinata showing the most promise because of her results during the chunnin exams.

If anyone manages to even touch a strand of hair on any of those people, Naruto will go nuclear and basically level as much of their village as possible. Other than that, there's the Akatsuki to contend with, and during the wartime, I've no doubt they'd try to use the confusion to get to the Jinchuuriki.

Allowing the wrong person to step into the role of the Hokage could not only hurt Naruto, but, at this point in time, it could literally doom the world. You don't know it, but Naruto's power has reached a level so beyond us that, currently, he is on pair with Hashirama-jiji at full power. _At least._ Me taking this seat would mean protecting both those that I hold dear, such as Kushina, Naruto and Shizune, and honoring the dreams of Dan and Nawaki, by taking the seat itself, and the dreams of Hashirama and Tobirama Jiji, in turning the village into something worth protecting, where no one else has to go through the type of childhood Naruto did."

Tsunade's response shocked Hiruzen greatly. He hadn't noticed it, but since graduating, Naruto had already amassed enough strength, power and influence to basically make the village his own if he desired, and with Tsunade's words, he didn't even doubt that the blond was hiding even more. Ensuring that the next leaders of the village were favored by him, or at least friendly towards him, would go a long way in mantaining peace.

' _He could've been the greatest Hokage in history, but the villagers' own actions made sure this wouldn't be possible..._ '

Hiruzen sighed at that, before refocusing on Tsunade.

"I'll be making my choice known first privately in the presence of the council, then in a public inauguration. Make sure to get your affairs in order until then, as this is a very demanding job."

Tsunade waved her hand at that.

"I've got clones to do the paperwork, and the greatest support group possible behind me. Naruto alone could take care of foreign policy and information. Shikaku is the jounin commander, and I have word that both his son, Chunnin Nara Shikamaru, and Gennin Aburame Shino, Shibi's son, are being groomed and prepared for the role. Inoichi is preparing Ino to fill his place in T&I, as is Anko for Haku. I'll be sharing responsibilities with Shizune for the medical program, Dragon and Phoenix, as always, will be in charge of ANBU, and the rest will be focused on shinobi matters.

Naruto's popularity will also keep the civillians in line and appeased, and the civillian council members on their toes in order not to have him cash in the debts that he's been discreetly buying for years. This is going to literally be the easiest reign as Hokage ever, as even the Fire, Water and Spring Daimiyo have a liking towards Naruto."

Hiruzen could only sweatdrop at that, crying inwardly all the while.

' _I wish my reign had been so easy! But no, it was all wars, and paperwork, and rivals! Tsunade doesn't even have to deal with her own Danzo!_ '

Clearing his throat at that, Hiruzen called out.

"Well, thank you Tsunade. You'll finally let the old bones rest, so that I no longer have to deal with any of this shit."

And like that, one of the most important meetings in all of history ended.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Mei paints a target on an Akatsuki member, Naruto frees another country and stars in a movie, Kakashi hates C-ranks and Tsunade is going to take the hat. This chapter was anything but uneventful.**

 **That being said, the next chapter is going to be a bit more surprising I believe.**

 **As always, please leave a review, follow and favorite. This was FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	33. Demons, Gods and Council Meetings

**Not mine.**

 _ **-Namikaze Estate-**_

"Hey Naruto, did you know that you're a god?"

"...No, not really. When did this happen?"

"Probably between you bringing your mother back to life and now."

Naruto sighed at that, rubbing his forehead.

"Log's sake, how did this come to happen?"

Mashiro pulled a scroll open, reading from it as she spoke.

"Based on the writings I've gotten, your cult started in Wave country. During the first year of Gato's rule, one of the village's beloved elders summoned the people around him in his deathbed. He, in his last breaths, foretold of a saviour of a saviour who would arrive at Wave, sway the Frozen Lotus and the Mist Dweller, and then slay the Little Monster.

Most people discounted it as his dying fantasies, with the exception of his grandson, who took his word seriously and decided to go into self-imposed exile. He went into the deepest woods of Wave, living inside of a cave from whatever Nature gave him, and communing with the 'higher plane', his words not mine. He apparently got a response from there, and starting writing the gospel of the Whiskered god, one with the eyes of the sky and the hair of the sun.

After you and your team saved Wave, his teachings were accepted by a small margin of people who started worshipping you religiously. They consolidated a solid worshipper basis, and then spread across the smaller islands of Water Country. With your contribution to the end of the Bloodline Purges, and the relief aid that you and your associates gave the people, more started joining the cult.

Their writings spoke of you singlehandedly beating down the great tree and weathering the strong wave, saving the old monkey, exposing the faudulent toad, embracing the lost Slug and destroying the yellow-eyed snake with the flames of heaven."

Naruto hung his head at that.

"Fucking hell, that's is so accurate that it's actually freaky. Beating Edo Hashirama and Tobirama-jijis, helping Sarutobi-jiji, becoming one with Tsu-chan, exposing the toad's rule breakage to the panthers, hell, even the fact that I killed Orochimoron with the Amaterasu... Are we sure he doesn't have a Kekkei Genkai that allows him to see the future and is just writtin that down while high on opioids?"

Mashiro just shrugged at that.

"Maybe he is, but that doesn't change the fact that Naruto-ism is gaining traction. The other writtings refer to you defeating a man of iron and steel in order to bring warmth to the land of ice and snow..."

"Doto and the now named Spring country, yes..."

Mashiro ignored Naruto's interruption as she continues speaking.

"And you protecting a blessed woman and slaying a demon."

"...I'm really starting to hate prophecies. My next mission is to escort a priestess to Demon country."

Mashiro shrugged at that.

"More proof that you're really a god masquerading as human."

Naruto sweatdropped at that.

"Please don't make fun of me like that, Mashiro." 

Kushina broke in.

"Well, think about it from the perspective of regular people.

You are a 14 almost 15 year old strong enough to fight on pair with legends like Senju Hashirama and Tobirama, destroy one of the Sannin, teleport freely, and you have literally brought me back to life.

Plus, you can do crazy shit like manipulate gravity, summon any creature you desire. absorb chakra, weaponize your own body, rip information straight from people's minds by ripping out their souls, and control the king of hell.

Other than that, there's the fact that you're all but immortal, your chakra reserves are stupidly massive, you have the outright hacks which constitute the Mangekyo Sharingan, and our Uzumaki Witchcraft. All that's left is for you to know how to fly!"

Naruto spoke up at that, scratching the back of his head.

"Actually..."

Mashiro spoke up in a deadpan.

"You can fly. Why doesn't this surprise me?"

"Hey, I can't fly... Yet. For now I can only walk in the air by using wind release to extremely condense air particles into pseudo-solid platforms. I'm still trying to figure out a way to fly."

Kushina just shrugged.

"Whatever you say, God-Sochi."

Naruto groaned even as Mashiro and Kushina smirked.

 _ **-2 Weeks Later-**_

" **I Am Moryo, the great Demon! You will not prevent my ressurection, boy!** "

"No, I'm not. Hit it, Shion!"

Moryo turned one of his serpentine heads towards the side, seeing the blond-haired, lavender-eyed priestess slapping a sealing tag onto a stone wall, her chakra flowing into it before various chains emerged from all around him, chaining his body down and actually burning him. He turned a hateful gaze towards the smirking Naruto, before speaking.

" **AS SOON AS I AM FREE OF THESE INFERNAL BINDS, I SHALL SEEK YOU OUT, GUT ALL THOSE YOU LOVE IN FRONT OF YOU, AND THEN DEVOUR YOUR DESPAIRING SOUL!** "

Naruto frowned at that declaration, pulling a tri-pronged Kunai from his inner pocket.

"You should not have said that. You have just made me very, very angry."

The blonde tossed the Kunai at the bottom of the chasm the Demon was attempting to emerge from, before drawing a second Tri-pronged Kunai and tossing it above Moryo, at the stone ceiling.

He put his two hands in front of him, blackish-purple, blue and clear particles coalescing in front of each of his hands as the chakra of both Kei and Kiyomi flowed through him. The particles coalesced into two palm-sized spheres, which started slowly growing larger.

' _I'll tap into that power..._ '

Focusing, Naruto closed his eyes, an aura of yellowish-orange chakra coalescing around him, even as blood started trickling out of his closed right eye.

One of the spheres was surrounded by black flames, feeding it further and combining properly, while the other one was fueled by an influx of Sage of Six paths chakra, as much as Naruto felt comfortable drawing out without burning his body down.

The two spheres shot forward, before disappearing in twin flashes of yellow.

In an instant, the Amaterasu-Bijuudama shot up from below Moryo, while the Rikudo-Bijuudama shot off from above, the two slamming into the chained demon simultaneously.

In a flash of orange, Naruto was beside Shion, before the two appeared outside the temple.

Naruto quickly went through various handsigns before slamming his hands down on the ground.

" **Entombment of the God-King Seal!** "

Successive chains of Fuuinjutsu formulae emerged from Naruto's hands, surrounding the temple over and over again, a blue glow emerging from them as massively thick, layered barriers emerged from them.

 ***BOOM!***

Even from outside the barrier, Shion could feel the shockwave released from the powerful explosion of the temple, having been tossed to her behind. She saw a massive amount of brightly-coloured light and black flames furiously ravaging the area they were inside of, with Naruto straining heavily to mantain the barrier.

15 tense minutes later, a sweaty, trembling Naruto finally dropped his arms, the massive storm of power dissipating inside the barrier. The two blondes made their way to the gigantic crater created by Naruto, looking down and seeing no trace of the previous existance of neither Moryo, nor the temple.

Turning towards Shion and giving her a thumbs up, Naruto grinned before speaking up.

"Told you I wouldn't die. Your eyes were wrong this time."

Shion smiled wryly at that, the happiness visible in her eyes as she spoke.

"I guess they were."

Having said that, she took hold of Naruto's collar and pulled him into an intense kiss that surprised and dazed the already tired blonde, causing him to fall backwards onto his ass, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"I have to say, destroying Moryo was the biggest amount of effort I've put into something non-sex related in a long time. On the flip side, I've determined how strong a bijuudama shot by me is, and how much more intense it's made when using the broken things which are the Rinne-sharingan's Enton and Sage of Six Paths chakra, even if only a reduced amount. I bet old man Rikudo would whip me around like an unwanted stepchild if he wanted to, at this point. And, his mom was even stronger than that, it took him almost dying, and his brother actually dying, to be able to seal her away, not even beat her. This world is a fucking terrifying place."

Shion was bemused by Naruto's ramblings, ignoring them in favor of enjoying the freedom of not having to sacrifice her own life to destroy a demon like her own mother had. Shrugging, she threw herself on top of the blonde, and spoke even as she straddled his waist.

"I was about to sacrifice myself without ever enjoying the pleasure of a romantic, or physical relationship. Not going to happen again."

Naruto could only give a shit-eating grin at that, even as his arms wrapped around Shion's waist and they ground into eachother through their respective clothes.

"I love my life."

 _ **-2 Weeks Later-**_

"I hate my life."

Why was Naruto saying something that un-Naruto-ish?

Why, perhaps it's the fact that he had been trapped inside of a barrier which scrambled his powers for the most part, limited the chakra he had access to to low-jonin level, and his chakra control to low-chunnin, and blocked his link to Kei and Kiyomi.

Other than this, there was the issue of the crazy, silver-haired woman in front of him, her eyes a bright pink. She was clad in an odd, black and white cloak you'd expect from some sort of cultist, the buttons in front opened in a downward slit reaching all the way to her bellybutton, displaying plentiful amounts of cleavage. She was wearing a pair of standard blue sandals, a pair of worn, brown pants, and had single-bladed scythe in her hands, the blade a gleaming black, it's edge reflecting good amounts of light, and it's thick, metallic shaft coloured in a matte black, no shine or gloss.

' _So, with the reduced chakra I can't do any crazy shit like spamming elemental jutsu, the Hiraishin, Mangekyo abilities, rinnegan, or anything like that. With my link with Kei and Kiyomi broken, I can't rely on their support. With my control at Chunnin level, I can't freely use Kabuto's regenerative jutsu, which means that I can't simply tank and shrug off her hits. This time, if I get a blade through the lung, I can't claim it to be a minor inconvenience._

 _I can use my sword and Taijutsu, and I can spam the academy jutsu... Maybe I can make use of the Shunshin like Shisui._

 _Fuck, my low control prevents even summoning and the chakra seal-engraving methods. I am so going to destroy this chick._ '

Taking hold of his sword's grip, Naruto dashed backwards, trying to move away from his attacker. Looking down, he saw that the glowing symbol of a triangle inside of a circle that had shown up under him was moving with him, meaning he couldn't even try to get away from the girl to try and fight full power.

Just fucking great.

Leaning back to dodge two slashes of the girl's scythe, Naruto went down for a low sweep, sweeping her off her feet before kicking her in the stomach, throwing her towards a set of trees before drawing his sword.

The woman got up from the ground, ignoring the kick that should've scrambled her internal organs only to dash towards Naruto with renewed vigor. The blonde drew his own sword, parrying her slashes, only to have his own blocked with the unyielding shaft of her scythe.

He had to hop back at the last second, losing a lock of hair to a deceptively ranged swipe of her blade.

' _She messed with my hair!? That's it, the gloves are off!_ '

Bending his legs into a semi-crouch, Naruto took hold of his sword before various other images of him appeared around him in the same stance. All of the Naruto's dashed at the crazed woman, with the first one swinging at her, but as she angled her scythe, she was surprised by the blade passing through it and her completely like smoke, causing her to believe it to be genjutsu.

Dashing at the blonde furthest from the front of the group, she swung her scythe, causing Naruto to block her slash with his own blade.

She was surprised, however, when she felt a blade bite deeply into her side.

Turning to the side to try to counter, she was hit by a slash to the back, and as she turned around to meet her attacker, she felt two blades simultaneously slashing at her from two different sides.

"RAGHHHH!"

She shouted out in anger, a dark aura emanating from her which pushed Naruto away, forcing him him to use chakra to stop himself from slamming into some of the trees behind them.

' _Okay, she counte-shit!_ '

Naruto bent at knee level, barely avoiding the powerful slash from the woman, the sheer shockwave rustling his air and causing beads of sweat to appear on his forehead as it devastated a good part of the forest behind him.

She reared her scythe back and delivered a downwards vertical slash, which Naruto avoided by going into a one-handed handstand, sticking himself with chakra on the palm of his hand as he fully tucked his knees into his chest, before pushing himself upwards.

Righting himself middair, Naruto took hold of his sword's handle in what would've been an iaido stance, even as he watched some markings crawling up the woman's face.

In an instant, various arcs filled the air, the light reflecting off of the rapidly-moving blades even as they clashed against eachother, releasing metallic sparks. The speed was so tremendous that the clashes kept Naruto in the air, as if gravity had been temporarily disabled.

The blonde's eyes sharpened as his slashes sped up, the red markings on his sword glowing brightly as the metallic gleam it released changed into something reminiscent of a red, neon glow. Soon enough, various trenches were on the ground around the woman's feet, and her clothing and body took various gashes as she was forced to limit her defense to vital areas.

' _I'm going to have to use that..._ '

For an instant, Naruto shifted his stance, and his enemy could have sworn he was _standing_ on air...

Before his ankles flickered, and he _vanished_.

" **Iaido: chiratsukikō suteppu** **!** (Path of Unsheathing: Flickering light step)"

In an instant, various different Naruto's appeared around his enemy, already in the motion of re-sheathing after a cut, the gashes and slashes appearing all over her body as if magic, before three simultaneous images of Naruto surrounded her, their blades piercing through her vitals, before they flickered out of existance.

Naruto reappeared some distance from the woman, taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, as he had just had the closest brush with death in a long while.

' _Almost dying was a scary experience._ '

Looking at his downed opponent, Naruto nodded in respect, before turning around and slowly walking away, his thighs protesting against it in their soreness.

' _She forced me to pull off a complicated move... But I still haven't mastered the_ _ **Air Walk**_ _properly. My thighs are basically screaming at me!... Wait a second... !_ '

Naruto jumped away at the last second, avoiding anything more than a cut shirt, even as his leg muscles shouted at him. Looking at his enemy, he saw the woman smirking at him, blood streaming down her mouth in copious amounts even as she hoisted up her scythe. The markings covered her face completelly, giving her a stylized Skeleton-like colour scheme.

"Wait a minute... Circle with reverse triangle, scythe, grey hair, pink eyes... Are you related to Hidan of the Hidden Hotsprings Village?"

The woman scowled at that, spitting a glob of blood on the ground before answering.

"You dare compare me to that weakling Hidan, when I carry out the task of Lady Jashin!?"

"Task?"

At this question, the woman smirked.

"I have heard of you, Uzumaki. The self-pronounced god. Your sacrilegious blasphemy shall not be allowed to continue! In the name of Jashin-Sama, the pretender shall be slain! I, Kirara, am to be your executioner, as decrees the word of the lady!"

"...Sacrilegious blasphemy? That's a bit redundant, isn't it? Wow, you might be devout, but you're not one much for the books, are you? I peg you as more of an 'oral teaching' believer. Am I right? Am I?"

"You may mock me now, but I shall slay you in the name of my goddess, and I shall laugh as she feasts on your soul!"

And like that, Kirara dashed at Naruto. She started swinging anew, with Naruto struggling to stay away from the edge of her scythe, absorbing some of the swinging blows from the blunt side, and parrying the rest.

Kirara's dominance of the pace of the fight wasn't because she got faster. No, her speed stayed the same. Naruto was the one slowing down.

The circle was sapping and scrambling his chakra, so while he could still perform the intense movements he knew his muscles were prepared for, the constant passive regeneration granted to him by both the nine tails and the Uzumaki Chakras wasn't there, meaning he actually felt fatigue.

' _Shit, the flickering light step by itself tired me a lot. Having started off of the_ _ **Air Walk**_ _, which uses the chakra to condense the air particles into palpable, solid platforms to kick off of as if it were solid ground, and having to do it three times just to get into my starting position, after using a good deal of Shunshin, has got me running low. What can I do now?_ '

Even as his thoughts sped through his brain, Naruto kept up with his defensive efforts. He had resorted to using his sword to parry and deflect any cutting blows, as bloodloss would leave him at even more of a disadvantage, leaving him lighteahead and woozy as he would be unable to simply regenerate it to ignore the loss.

' _By Kami and the Holy Log, is this how fighting against me feels like for everyone else? An enemy that never tires, who can shrug off your best and most tiresome attacks, and keep the battle at their pace? I'm broken as all hell!_ '

Even as he thought that, a plan percolated through his mind. Speeding up his sword for an instant, Naruto managed to deliver a strike to Kirara's shoulder which stalled her next strike, giving him the time to jump away to a zone closer to the devastated treeline.

Placing the handle of his sword in his mouth, Naruto rose one of his hands in a half-tiger sign above his head, the other in the same sign at chest level, as a breeze blew in.

" **Konohagakure no Jutsu!** (Hidden Leaves Technique)"

The breeze picked up the hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of leaves that had fallen off the trees after Kirara's devastating slash, creating a veritable storm of green that enclosed the area. Leaves constantly blew past Kirara's face, creating intermitent eye contact with Naruto, before he, once again, _vanished_.

Hearing the sound of footsteps to the left, Kirara swung that way, doing nothing more than cut a leaf.

A loud breathing had her turning 180 degrees, slashing that way, before a metallic clinking had her slashing to the right. The sound of rustling clothes had her swinging behind her once again, before she spun around, delivering a 360 degree horizontal cut in extreme frustration...

Before she felt a strong blow to her upper black, her spine breaking on impact and breaking the information flow from her brain to her body, causing her to fall in place, like a marionette with it's strings cut.

As the storm of leaves vanished, Naruto reappeared in front of Kirara, his hand clutching onto a bleeding, yet shallow cut on his left flank.

Seeing her target, Kirara snarled at him.

"HOW? HOW DID YOU BEAT ME? YOU SHOULD BE ON YOUR LAST LEGS!"

Letting out a chuckle, Naruto spoke as he walked closer to hers.

"I am. I am tired like I've never been before, my reserves are all but empty, my arms and legs are burning, and all I want to do right now is lie down and sleep for a day or three. How did I beat you in this state? Preserverance, and basics. Whipping the leaves around was super easy, barely no chakra cost. They were literally already there. In the middle of the leaf storm, I made liberal use of the bunshin and minor, D-rank auditive genjutsu to simulate the sounds of movement and actions. I tried striking earlier, but you manage to slash at me. I Kawarimi'd with one of the leaves, by it still took enough time for me to get cut.

I intended to outright cut off your head, but I had to go for a debilitating strike. And now..."

As he said that, Naruto's sword sang through the air, neatly splitting her head of her neck.

Her head rolled away for a bit, with Naruto enjoying the silence, until...

"YOU CUT OFF MY HEAD! WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

' _Oh for fuck's sake, this is just plain..._ '

" _ **Bullshit?**_ "

Naruto jumped backwards, his hand instantly reaching his sword for reassurance. The voice he heard was... Unnatural. It held great power, and an undertone of insanity. It was, however, strangely arousing...

" _ **Mhm, is that what you think of me?**_ "

Naruto froze as he heard the voice sounding right next to his ear, a pair of soft, warm hands settling on his shoulders and kneading them.

" _ **Naruto, dear, you are way too stressed! You need to get rid of these knots if you wish to livee a relaxed life!**_ "

"...W-who are you? _What_ are you?"

" _ **Who am I? Naruto, I thought you were a smart young man. Just think. You fight a high cultist, defeat the immortal killer and main enforcer of Jashin, spill blood and sweat while inside one of my symbols, and behead your enemy with no reservations? Did you think I wouldn't respond to this?**_ "

Swallowing down his nervosism and fear, Naruto spoke as calmly as he possibly could.

"Jashin."

Kirara's head took offense to that.

"IT'S JASHIN-SAMA, YOU ASSHAT! NO, YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO SAY THE GODDESS' NAME, YOU FILTHY BLASPHEMER! FALSE PROPHET! FAKE IMMORTAL! LADY JASHIN HAS COME TO SMITE YOU..."

" _ **Enough, Kirara!**_ "

Jashin's voice carried a dangerous tone which shut Kirara up instantly. Instead of simply scaring her witless, that one sentence had Kirara praying intensely to Jashin, praising her glory, and all that Jazz.

Ignoring the chants and prayers, Jashin turned back towards Naruto.

" _ **Oh right, where was I? Oh, yeah. Basically, blood, suffering, cut heads, my symbol, yadda yadda, and now I'm here! Fun, no?**_ "

"I'd have to respectully disagree, seen as it _is_ one of your cultists that tired me out. I feel like I'm about to spit out my lungs."

" _ **Well, that was the only way to test you.**_ "

"Test me?"

" _ **Indeed. You are so used to your pseudo-divinity, and your invulnerability and invincibility relative to your contemporanies, that I desired to know how you would act if your power had been limited to something more... 'normal'. I was the one that created this arena trap, and allowed you the general chakra-based capabilities of someone between high chunnin and low-jounin, stripped away all of the abilities one could consider... Divine, overpowered or broken, and left you to fend for yourself against a warrior of my choosing.**_ "

"And if I hadn't passed the test..."

" _ **You would've died.**_ "

"Ah. I see. Well, I've taken more than enough of your time, so I'll be heading on home..."

" _ **Not so fast, Uzumaki! I tested you for a reason, and I have my answer!**_ "

Naruto spoke with trepidation.

"Answer? What answer?"

" _ **Whether or not you're worthy of being my husband when you ascend, or not, of course!**_ "

"...Is anything I say going to change your mind on the subject?"

" _ **No, not really. You're my prospective husband, suck it up!**_ "

Naruto sighed out loudly,

"Of course. Now, could you please give me back my healing factor? I don't much enjoy feeling like death warmed over."

" _ **Sure, sure, whatever.**_ "

With an audible snap of fingers, the diagram under Naruto vanished, and the blonde gave out a sigh of relief as his power flooded his veins, his link to Kei and Kiyomi re-established, with him telling them they'd talk later, his access to the full extent of his chakra, and his eyes, returned.

Turning around to face what would be one of his prospective future wives, Naruto was surprised to find no one behind him other than Kirara, who seemed to be setting her head back into place.

"My life has just reached previously uncharted levels of weird. And I have sex with my zombie-but-not-really almost-mom on an almost daily basis."

Kirara popped up behind him.

"Your mom is a zombie? Is she immortal?"

Naruto waved his hand carelessly at that.

"No, not really. I gave her a real body after a snake dude brought her back from the dead. It was more complicated than it sounds, actually. Well, bye!"

As he started walking off, Kirara called out.

"The fuck do you mean 'bye'?"

"...I mean that I intend on taking a path, be it in the literal, geographic sense, or in the metaphorical, ideological, moral or otherwise sense that makes it so that we will not be making contact for along while. Preferably, for the rest of your immortal existance."

"Yeah, ain't gonna happen. I'm your bodyguard from now on."

"I never asked for a bodyguard."

"Well, too fucking bad! Jashin-sama chose you for her husband, which means that protecting you is part of my duties as her chosen one!"

"Bodyguards are supposed to be stronger than the people they're guarding, though, or their presence is extremely redundant. If I remember correctly, I kicked your ass with the chakra and chakra control of a Tokubetsu Jounin, chunin level jutsu, and incomplete techniques. At full power, I can literally fight 50 of you and not break a sweat. I am not even joking right now, fighting you without my powers put things into perspective, and it's pretty fucking mindboggling for a single person to be so strong."

"Aww, come on. If push comes to shove, you could even use me as a meat shield, you know I'd recover eventually. Plus, if you ever get attacked by a Jashinist, I can kill them permanently!"

Tilting his head, Naruto rubbed his chin.

"I _will_ have to deal with Hidan... Okay, sure, let's go. Damn, I doubt anything else could surprise me as much as this whole situation."

 _ **-Council chambers, Konoha-**_

"I think I'm in a coma."

The people seated around the room gave the Uzumaki-Namikaze clanhead questioning looks, prompting him to speak further.

"It's the only reasonable explanation! I mean, seriously, the month I've had isn't something normal! I fought, and killed, an actual demon, fought an immortal, talked to a goddess, and now Tsunade is taking the job as Hokage. I'm sure that I'm just experiencing a coma fantasy, or some type of delusion, maybe a fever dream, or even just a weird dream, or nightmare.

I'm pretty sure that my alarm is going off soon enough, and I'll be waking up in the arms of my Not-zombie sort-of-mom after a night of intense, mindboggling sex, nothing more. That's the only explanation."

People were giving Naruto incredulous looks all around the room, be it at the ludicrousness of what he had just said, the fact that he so readily admitted to be willing to bed Kushina, or the fact that they could totally see this happening to him.

Hiruzen cleared his throat at that, before speaking up.

"This is no joke. I asked Tsunade to be my replacement, and she outright accepted it. I was honestly expecting more resistance, and me having to move hell and earth, plead and beg and whatever else to get her to agree. I was even ready to offer to pay for her gambling debts."

Tsunade snorted at that.

"If you want to pay for all my debts, you'll have to buy them from mr. blondie himself over here."

Everyone looked expectantly towards Naruto, expecting him to reveal it to be one of Tsunade's jokes...

"Nope, I'm not parting with all this sweet, juicy, blackmail material. It's mine."

Hiashi was the next one to speak.

"So you have a method of enforcing control and compliance over Tsunade. What guareantees do we have that those won't be used during her term to fulfill your personal ambitions that might not be the best for the village?"

"Well" Naruto started Airily "The fact that I'm not a piece of human garbage who'd brand my own family with a slavery mark lends more credence to my character than yours... Plus, what the hell would I want with, and from Konoha? I'm self-sufficient, I'm the head of the nation of Uzushio which means that my residence is the Embassy and that I could leave at any moment, and my popularity is on the upswing. Other than that, I have a lot of money. Like, a _lot_ ,of money.

What could I strongarm Tsunade into giving me that I dont have already? Plus, going for the complete emperor overlord angle seems like too big of a hassle, not worth it."

Shikaku, even from where he laid, with his head on top of his arms, managed o make a high-five that Naruto intercepted with his own palm, the resulting shockwave leaving everyone shook, and dazed.

And like that, one of the weirdest council meetings in history ended.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Scene! Stick around for the next chapter of Uzumaki Chronicles, and please, leave a review, follow and/or favorite.**


	34. Disciples and Climbing Clouds

_**Not mine.**_

 **-Hokage's office, Konoha-**

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the faces of the people lined up in front of him. Said people were the individuals with a Jounin rank who volunteered their names for the spot of genin team leader, seen as it was about time for the latest class of shinobi hopefuls to graduate from the academy.

To his surprise, the person he expected to be there the least, was actually present.

He expected Oonoki teaching him particle style more than he did Naruto volunteering as a Jounin teacher, and the other jounin in the room seemed to have been caught by surprise as well.

After all, an all-around village superstar wouldn't usually volunteer to 'take care of some brats', no?

Pushing those thoughts aside, Hiruzen took a puff off of his pipe, slowly exhaling a cloud of smoke, before speaking up.

"Now that we have the volunteers for the Jounin sensei position, do any of you have requests for a specific team?"

In the line of mostly indistinct Jounin, only two raised their hand. Naruto, and Ebisu.

Hiruzen nodded towards Ebisu, seen as he held seniority as a Jounin. The bespectacled Jounin lowered his arm, nodding respectfully as he stepped forward from the assembled line, his back straight and his arms at his sides as he spoke.

"I'd like to have the Honored Grandson on my team, Hokage-sama."

"Objection!"

Everyone turned towards the blonde Uzumaki, finding him smacking his hand onto a table that wasn't there previously, clad in a blue suit and red tie.

Hiruzen could only sigh in exasperation at Naruto's antics, being used to them.

"Yes, Naruto?"

In an instant, to the surprise of everyone, the table and suit were suddenly gone, with Naruto returning to his previous outfit, his posture as rigid and respectful as Ebisu's as he spoke.

"I would also like to have _Sarutobi Konohamaru_ on my team, alongside Utatane Moegi and Mitokado Udon."

"T-that's preposterous! I've been teaching the honorable grandson ever since he first started in the academy! I deserve to have him in my team more than you, you disrespectful rufian!"

"You're a moron who can't even look past the title of Honorable Grandson and see the person that is Sarutobi Konohamaru. People are defined by more than just whom they are related to, you know? Plus, I _have_ been teaching them for a long time. Ever since I first returned from my mission to Wave country, I've been teaching the three children I requested as much as I could.

And, unlike you who decided to set arbitrary limits based on what _you_ believed them capable of, I taught them as much as they could learn, as soon as they were ready. Instead of crippling them by limiting them to basics that they already had a solid grasp of, I helped them reach the highest proficiency they could with the skill at that moment, since we know some skills only increase through field experience, or through factors that cannot be controlled majorly such as chakra capacity, and I helped them progress further.

Under me, the self-titled Konohamaru corps have all achieved a level of skill that was not expected of them by anyone. All of them can at least water walk, with Moegi capable of even Kunai spinning due to her smaller chakra capacity, I've got them as fit as any child their age has any business being with exercise and dietary regimens devised with the help of Maito Gai and ANBU trainers who I am friendly with, I've drilled the academy three into their heads, plus some other E and D-rank utilitary jutsu, such as the firestarter jutsu, for campfires, the wind dispersal, for scent masking, earth shaker, for footprint hiding, and so on and so forth.

I taught them treehopping, I've got them throwing Kunai and Shuriken like it's nobody's business, and I have even taught Moegi basic Med-nin theory, Konohamaru basic Jutsu-crafting theory, and Udon strategy. I've got them all good with stealth, trapping and evasion.

 _And_ , I got them to progress this far right under your nose, without you noticing a thing. That should validate their progress, and my mentorship of them. They are, for all intents and purposes, genin in all but experience, and it was my teaching methods that got them that far, while you wanted to keep Konohamaru ahead of his peers for the sake of status, without allowing him to progress even further."

"How dare you! What right did you have to try to poach my Apprentice!?"

"Your apprentice? As far as I am aware, neither Hokage-Sama , nor Kono's mother signed any documents to that effect. And, if he were actually your apprentice, you would try to help him progress as much as he possibly could, instead of giving him exercises he had already gotten so that you could go around peeping like the closet perv you are."

By this point Ebisu was about to reach for his Kunai pouch, with Naruto smirking challengingly at him to try, before the third decided to intervene.

"Enough! Ebisu was indeed Konohamaru's private tutor, but there was no clause claiming that he was to be the only one to teach him. That being said, forcibly pushing the limits of Academy students is not done for a reason. A stable childhood is necessary so that our shinobi are humans, not stoic, unfeeling, monsters. Teaching them so far may have not been a good move, Naruto, but I shall trust in your choices for now.

Still, we still have a disconnect here. The two of you want Konohamaru on their team, and based on what I heard, I know that both are suitable to have him on their team, with Ebisu's focus on the basics and his following of the unnoficial protocol for academy student emotional development, while Naruto helped them reach unexpected levels of progress, with no drawbacks as far as I can surmise from the interactions that I've had with mine, and the Elders' grandchildren. How do we settle this dispute?"

The answer came from the person seated on the couch of the Hokage's office, watching the events from the side.

"Why not allow the brat to decide?"

Everyone's attention turned towards Senju Tsunade, who had been, for a while now, watching all of the most important events occuring within the office to get a grasp of the functions of Hokage, as preparation for her own term as such, after the Third's retirement. Seeing that everyone's attention was on her, she kept speaking.

"Well, based on Blondie's words there, he already prepared Konohamaru and his little friends for Genin service. We test their skills independently from the academy, and based on their results, we either give them a choice, or we make the choice ourselves based on any shortcomings we see, and who would be best suited to help them overcome them."

Hiruzen rubbed his beard, shifting his attention to the two Jounin in question.

"Is that an agreeable deal for the two of you?"

Naruto and Ebisu nodded, before the closet pervert glared at Naruto, with the blonde completely ignoring him, angering him further. The people in the office could only sweatdrop at that, before Hiruzen spoke up again.

"With no further issues, you are all dismissed."

The Jounin in the room all saluted first Hiruzen, then Tsunade, before leaving through the door, with the exception of Naruto who vanished in a flash of Orange light.

Hiruzen rubbed his face, before speaking up.

"Do you see now why I'm so eager to leave this chair behind me?"

The blonde answered with a smirk on her face.

"Yep, old age is dulling your edge. The simplest solution would've been to give the brats to Naruto, as his extremely varied skillset would make him capable of helping them with most fields they decided to specialize on. For one reason or another, Naruto's prowess in most fields he dabbles in is easily cathegorized as S-rank, from the basics, to Elemental jutsu, to even sealing. His eyes give him the genjutsu prowess, his training with Furinji motherfucking Hayato, of all people, gives him solid Taijutsu, his kenjutsu training with Yayamoto-dono got his kenjutsu high enough to match Kushina's, maybe to even edge her over.

Whereas Ebisu is the average 'jack-of-all-trades' generalist. That by itself is nothing negative, the fact that he managed to make Jounin with this skillset of his proves that he is good, but eventually he'd run out of things to teach the children, which would lead them to stagnate, as his reaction to Naruto teaching Konohamaru tells me that he doesn't much appreciate his students seeking instruction from others."

Hiruzen sighed out lougly at that, cursing himself for not having even thought of things from that perspective, before speaking up.

"And why did you not simply say that, and avoid this whole test deal?"

"It would be bad form to show up the current Hokage. You already considered both claims valid, me going against your word would send the wrong image to the shinobi forces. Plus, Naruto's claims about what he taught the brats left not just Ebisu, but others, doubtful. This test is to show them that Naruto is to be respected, despite his age and his rocky start in the village. You know as well as me that many people are more than just a bit bitter about Naruto making jounin at 14, coming off of the chunin exams and not even going through the Jounin exams or the standard 6 month period as a chunin doing field missions.

They're crying favoritism, despite the fact that on sheer combat, he could basically beat anyone in the village. Except for Gai if he opened the eighth gate, maybe. Seeing the academy students that he taught performing as advertised is going to hammer home the point that he doesn't just talk the talk, but that he also walks the walk.

Plus, I'm bored from all the time spent here watching you doing boring, old people stuff with your old teammates."

Hiruzen could only shake his head at that, before returning to reading his little orange book, while his Kage Bunshin dealt with the paperwork.

 _ **-Konoha Academy-**_

"So let me get this straight. We're going to be subjected to some sort of test, or series of tests."

"Yes."

"Those tests will try to determine how good we are."

"Yes."

"Based on how good we are, we will be either automatically given to you as your genin squad by the Hokage; given to Ebisu sensei as his genin squad by the Hokage; or given the option to choose between which one we want to study under. Is that it, Naruto-niichan?"

"Yes, Kono. That's exactly it."

Moegi spoke up after that.

"Do you have any advice or recomendation for us, Naruto-nii?"

Naruto smirked, even as he answered.

"Go all out, and show them what you've capable of."

Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon sported simultaneous grins that, if seen by any of their academy instructors, would have lead to them getting chills and panic attack previously seen only during _that_ week.

Naruto could only smile proudly at the kids he considered his younger siblings, their grins reminding him of the week that he let some of his skill and smarts bleed through the idiot mask he previously wore, by pranking the village almost to it's breaking point.

' _Ah, to be young and cunning as a fox... I won't ever forget the sight of Hiashi-teme's pink and purple polka-dotted boxers hanging from the light post in the village square. He almost had an aneurysm, if the twitching facial muscles were an indication. Perhaps I should have my cute little disciples unleash Hell week, version 2 upon the village..._ '

At that moment, almost every villager in Konoha felt a chill run up their spine, as if someone had just walked over their graves.

 _ **-Hokage's office-**_

Tsunade started chuckling lowly, knowing that amusement was abound, while Hiruzen rubbed the bridge of his nose in anticipation of more trouble.

 _ **\- Uzumaki-Namikaze Estate -**_

Inside the Uzumaki-Namikaze estate, Kushina stopped scrubbing herself for a second during her shower, her eyes gleaming madly in almost unrestrained amusement.

" I don't know why, but I just felt the urge to kiss Sochi-kun right now."

Shrugging it off, Kushina resumed her bathing in a decidedly happier mood, whistling songs of itching powder in underwear and water buckets over doors.

At the same time, Kei and Kiyomi who had been sparring with one another suddenly stopped, looked eachother in the eye, before giving the widest, shit-eating grins in the history of grins.

 _ **-Back at the Academy-**_

"Well, I've told you what I had to. I won't be teaching you anything new for these two weeks, in order not to distract you and such, nor to show bad faith and try to work around the challenge, so you'll have to work on your own in the skills that you already have. And remember kids, there's no such thing..."

The response came simultaneously from the three children, showing how often they were used to this specific lecture.

"As overprepared."

Giving the kids a thumbs up, Naruto vanished in an orange flash.

 _ **-2 days later, Hokage's office-**_

"Jounin Uzumaki reporting for duty, sir!"

"Naruto, this is unexpected. I'd expect you to be training the kids to get past the tests proposed by Tsunade."

Naruto waved his hand dismissively at that, even as he spoke.

"Nah, I was honest with my assessment of the skills I taught them, and how good they are at it. They're ready for whatever you put in their way, and if they're not, then I was a crap teacher and I shouldn't get to be their jounin-sensei in the first place, but that's not what I came here to talk about. I'm here to request a mission."

Hiruzen nodded at that, acknowledging Naruto's words, before reaching for the mission scrolls of B-rank and above, which the Hokage always carried copies of for personal assignment, outside of the mission assignment office. As he perused the scrolls, he spoke to Naruto.

"Any preferences? Rank, time scale, anything?"

Naruto thought for a bit, before remembering something.

"Do you have anything to Lightning Country? Low rank, long term, as close to Kumo as possible?"

Hiruzen started looking at the small, plastic tags attached to the scrolls, holding certain keywords related to the mission in a high-ranking Konoha-specific code, established in order for efficient handling and distribution. He started speaking, even as he picked up a B-ranked scroll, unfurled it open and started reading through the full mission parameters.

"Any particular reasons for these conditions?"

"Well, yeah. I wanna visit Kumo. Ay challenged me to a contest of speed, and he promised me unlimited access to all of the areas easily accessible by chunin and below. Imma get me some lightning jutsu, maybe even the black lightning, or storm element jutsu, and I hear their library of water jutsu isn't half bad."

"I see..."

Hiruzen muttered absentmindedly before rolling the B-rank scroll back up, and tossing it towards Naruto. The blonde easily plucked the scroll from the air mid-flight, unrolling it and reading through it, while the Hokage spoke.

"The fire Daimiyo and the Lightning Daimiyo are in the middle of negotiations about some economic matters between our countries, and we intend on working out some sort of treaty with Kumo. The Hyuuga affair from a few years prior means that there's no chance to simply jump into an alliance and become the best of friends, due to distrust from our side, especially the major bloodline-holding clans, and their hurt pride from our body-switching trick between Hiashi and Hizashi, but we intend to at least create a non-aggression pact at least, to make sure that any contact between our shinobi isn't automatically negative, unless there're professional disputes over conflicting mission parameters.

You are to assemble a 3-man team, you included, between individuals of chunin rank and above, to accompany you. Do you accept?"

Naruto nodded at that, even as he rolled the scroll back up and stored it away in one of his sleeve's storage seals.

"I accept, Hokage-sama. I also request for my team to be composed by Chunin Hyuga Hinata, and Tokubetsu Jounin Mitarashi Anko."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at that.

"Truly? I do not see any valid reasoning behind your choices, would you mind making things clearer for me?"

Naruto nodded at that, his posture relaxed as he spoke, with Tsunade watching the scene, her interest fully roused.

"I chose Hinata as one of my team members to convey an image of strength. We know, as well as they, that Hinata was the target of the 'Hyuga incident'. By having any unsealed Hyuga, more specifically Hinata herself, in Kumo without any dedicated, specific guard, we are showing them that we are not afraid. The young child that was almost a victim managed to grow strong, and she can now walk into their home turf with no fear, nor trepidation.

Simultaneously, to people who aren't knowledgeable about the situation to the level that we are, those who have only superficial knowledge of the events, we pass an image of magnanimity, as if we had 'forgiven their previous actions' , and were willing to try and start anew. This kind of international goodwill goes a long way towards getting more clients.

I guess people like their hired murderers, thieves and spies to be good and honorable people. Go figure.

As to why Anko is on the team? That's because she's one of the best in the matter of reading people. As Ibiki's second, and Inoichi's co-worker, few know more about reading the mood and thoughts of others based on their body language, facial expressions and various such subconscious actions than Anko does. With Ay being a hot-tempered, very emotive individual, Anko should have no trouble reading him, and in matters of diplomacy, the ability to anticipate the reactions of others, and respond accordingly, spells the difference between peace and war."

Hiruzen grunted in agreement, before asking in a tired, exhasperated tone.

"Are you sure you don't want to take my place? 100% and completely?"

Tsunade snorted at that, before speaking up.

"What's the matter, old man? Decided that I'm no longer good enough for the spot?"

Hiruzen could only respond in a deadpan at that.

"You've spent the days you were supposed to work as my assistant drinking Sake and laughing at my misfortunes in dealing with the moronic part of the civillian council."

Naruto broke in at that, speaking in a lazy drawl.

"By moronic part, you mean the entirety of, correct?"

Hiruzen let out a sigh, before murmuring lowly.

" _That_ is why he won't take the seat, I remember now."

Shrugging off those thoughts, Hiruzen waved his hand.

"You and the team you've selected are cleared for the mission. You'll have to personally inform them of the mission, and the timescale."

Naruto nodded, giving the old man a two-finger salute while wearing a cheeky smile, before turning towards Tsunade and blowing her a kiss in a deliberately cheesy manner. Then, he vanished in an orange flash.

Tsunade snorted at that, taking a swig of her sake, before speaking.

"Cheeky brat."

To the surprise of everyone else in the room, ANBU turtle, the most silent of the bunch, who was hiding under the windowsill, spoke up.

"Maybe, but you have to admit he travels in style."

His words were met with grunts and murmurs in agreement from the four other ANBU stationed inside the office, causing Hiruzen to sweatdrop further.

' _Back in my days, ANBU didn't give snarky retorts... I think I kind of miss Danzo, now._ '

Thinking for a bit after that thought, Hiruzen snorted derisively.

' _Nah, I really don't._ '

 _ **-4 Days Later, gates of Kumogakure no Sato-**_

"Well, I guess this is the place."

Hinata gave Naruto a flat stare, before asking in a deadpan.

"Really? What gave it away? Was it the mountain range we entered, the constant lightning , or the giant pair of gates with 'Village Hidden in the Clouds' written on it in yellow that gave it away?"

Naruto shrugged at that, before answering.

"I don't know, probably the second one."

Anko could only laugh at Hinata's disgruntled look, before adressing Naruto.

"Ignoring her sarcasm? Not very nice, foxy-kun."

Naruto responded by turning towards her, giving her an absent-minded look as he answered.

"You say something, Anko?"

Hinata smirked smugly at the purplette's pout, causing Naruto to laugh inwardly. As the three approached the gates to the village, they were stopped by a dark-skinned, black-haired man, his height a comfortable 5'11, more than just a bit of muscle on his frame. His hair was short-cropped, and his face sported an almost-goatee composed by thin, dark-brown wisps of hair.

"Halt, Konoha-shinobi! State your business, or turn around and leave our country!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him, before responding non-challantly, not at all threatened by the man.

"Rude. The Lightning Daimiyo didn't prohibit Konoha shinobi from visiting his country, so we've the freedom to stay here. We could've simply been taking a vacation here in Kumo, could we not? I heard there were beautiful views provided by the mountain ranges and pretty cloud formations."

Seeing that the man showed not a shred of amusement, Naruto sighed in exasperation.

"Goddamn lack of a sense of humor... Fine, we came here for a meeting with the Raikage. I have a missive from the Hokage to be hand-delivered to him."

The man grunted gruffly, before holding his hand out.

"You can give it to me, I'll make sure it reaches Ay-sama."

Naruto tilted his head at that, before asking out loud.

"Are you the Raikage?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why are you trying to act as if you were?"

The man started turning an interesting shade of red at that, while Naruto kept speaking in his nonchallant tone, his pinky finger cleaning his ear of imaginary wax before blowing it off.

Annoyed beyond measure, the man literally spoke in a growl.

"Give me the goddamn document, or I'll break both of your legs and force you to crawl your way back to your pansy-ass, treehugging village!"

Hinata and Anko settled back to watch the fireworks. The two of them took a massive amount of sadistic pleasure from watching their boyfriend fucking with other people's heads.

"Eh... I don't really wanna... But how about you let me pass, and I ask the Raikage not to have you doing D-ranks cleaning dog turds and public bathrooms around the village?"

Before anything else could be said , Naruto released a single burst of highly-concentrated, highly dense chakra, freezing the man in front of him, and basically sending the entirety of the village into an uproar.

In less than 30 seconds, Ay had arrived on the scene, his body covered in his lightning armor, causing his hair to spike slightly and rise, shirtless, and without his kage robes.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

Naruto, ignoring the man's glare at him, raised his hand and gave him a jaunty wave.

"Hey, Ay."

Ignoring the snickers coming from Hinata and Anko, he kept speaking.

"I was sent here by the Hokage with some documents meant for the hands and eyes of the Raikage only, high level shit, y'know how it is, and when I tried to deliver it, this guy decided to block my entry into your village, and wanted to take the document himself, probably intent on usurping the authority of the Raikage, or something of the sort, I don't know."

The man blanched further, wilting under the hot glare of his own Kage, while Hinata and Anko had to support eachother to make sure that they didn't fall over from laughing too hard.

Naruto, ignoring all of this, kept speaking in a casual, conversational tone.

"I hammered home the point that the document was for the Raikage's eyes only, and he kept trying to get his hands on it, going as far as threatening me with physical harm. You can probably guess how it would've ended up for him."

Ay winced lightly at that, picturing the battered and broken form of the man, while Naruto continued.

"So I decided to get your attention directly, and I did that by releasing a weak chakra pulse."

Honestly, Naruto was exaggerating a bit. It wasn't his strongest, or even close to the strongest, chakra pulse, but he had put in a good amount of power into it. His words were more to keep fucking with the jackass that blocked him, and seeing his jaw almost dragging on the ground when he mentioned the 'weak' chakra pulse was golden!

Before anyone could say anything else, the majority of the village-bound chunin, tokubetsu jounin and jounin were positioned behind their Raikage, ready for a goddamn war if necessary, with their THUNDER's, their equivalent of Leaf's ANBU, creating a perimeter around them. Soon after, B and Yugito landed to each side of the Raikage.

While Anko and Hinata positioned themselves in a fighting stance, causing wariness amongst the forces, Naruto switched his focus to the blonde container of Matatabi, the Nibi, a wide, megawatt smile manifesting on his face, as he waved at her in an overly friendly fashion.

"Hello, Yugi-chan! I missed you, so I decided to pay you a little visit!"

Between Naruto's words, Matatabi's lustful diatribes, and the looks that were now being shot at her by the majority of the Kumo Shinobi, Yugito could really do little more than blush.

Not one to care much about such things, B spoke up.

"Hey there mister Nine, have you been doing fine?"

The people around them either sweatdropped at B's rapping, or blanched at the implications of his 'Mr. 9' comment. Naruto responded with a friendly smile and a shrug.

"Things've been pretty fine for mister nine, I'm just having some trouble at the Gate, mister eight."

People gaped openly at the rapped response, even as B gave the widest shit-eating grin.

"Didn't expect to find one of the fine arts, by these parts. Few people have the rapping smarts."

Before Naruto could respond, Yugito had bridged the distance between them, and clamped her hand on top of his mouth, before hissing out loudly.

"Don't encourage him!"

Naruto gave Yugito a mirthful look, before Anko started speaking, not being one to miss an opportunity to tease.

"Oh my, miss Yugito, to so boldly try to take away our Naruto's breath..."

Blushing down to her neck, Yugito hopped back from Naruto as if she had been burned, before Ay spoke up.

"HOLD THE FUCK UP!"

Everyone re-focused on the Raikage at that. As soon as he noticed that, he kept speaking.

"It was a false alarm, you are all free to return to your previous positions, and move the civillians from the emergency shelters."

With the majority of the Kumo shinobi leaving, Ay focused his attention on the one to have started all of this debacle, having noticed him attempting to sneak away in the middle of the crowd.

"Hold it right there, Jounin Kamizuni!"

The now-named rude man froze mid-step, even as everyone else moved around him, not wanting to be close when the Raikage punished him, avoiding the chance of getting lambasted alongside him.

"H-hai, Raikage-sama!"

Ay walked up towards Kamizuni, his 6'4" frame towering over the man's 5'11" menacingly, causing him to gulp nervously.

"Next time you block or threaten a courier service, or document runner, for no valid reason, I'll make sure to allow B and Yugito play with you using the powers of their special friends..."

Kamizuni blanched further, his back ramrod straight.

"...But for now, you'll make do with two months of D-ranks, cleaning up dog turds and public toilets from public areas."

"Fucking called it!"

Ay turned towards Naruto, watching as the blonde received a wad of cash from both women behind him.

Hinata could be heard grumbling about " _Cute blonds and their detestably good luck_ ", while Anko just scowled at once again losing a bet to Naruto.

' _This makes it 467-0..._ '

Ay cleared his throat, getting the attention of the Konoha contingent again.

"With that out of the way, you are as free to move around the village as any other Konoha nin."

Naruto smirked at Ay, before ending the previously unspoken thought.

"Which means constantly followed by your black ops corps, with even our shits measured for weight, size and consistency."

Hinata and Anko wrinkled their noses at the gross imagery, while Ay smirked in amusement.

"That's about the gist of it."

Naruto's team stopped at the gates, signing themselves in, before following Ay around the village as they moved towards the Kage tower, make small talk all the way.

As soon as they were inside the Raikage's office, with his two bodyguards, Darui and C, and his personal assistant, Mabui, also inside, Naruto unsealed his mission scroll, unrolling it and unsealing a different scroll altogether, handing said scroll to the Raikage before re-sealing his own.

Ay read through the document, with Mabui reading over his shoulder and taking notes, while C glared at the Konoha nin, as if trying to anticipate them trying to kill his leader. Darui, on the other hand, was leaning against the wall next to the window, completely relaxed.

Ay finished reading the document, receiving a nod from Mabui signifying the same, before he rolled it back up, and stored it in one of his desk drawers. Looking at Naruto, Ay nodded before speaking up.

"I shall convene with my advisors and craft a response for you to give to your Hokage. It should take at most 3 days, so you will be directed towards a hotel by one of my shinobi, where you shall be staying for the duration. You will be free to visit the village, and all of the regular civillian-accessible zones, but any attempts to trespass into unauthorized shinobi-restricted areas shall be dealt with harshly."

Naruto nodded at that, showing his and his team's compliance. Satisfied with that, Ay pushed a button on his desk, before speaking out loud.

"Send in Samui."

5 minutes later, the cool-headed blonde was in the office receiving the Raikage's instructions.

25 minutes later, the same blond was giving the Konoha nin a tour of the village.

in 30 minutes, Anko managed to succesfully have them lead to the most frequented drinking hole for Kumo nin, a bar in the similar situation to Konoha's 'swaying leaf' in the fact that it was, for all intents and purposes, a civillian bar. It just happened to attract a lot of the shinobi population.

'The rolling thunder' was, at the moment, bustling with activity. As Samui walked in, she was surprised by a call from a friend.

"Samui? Is that you? Come and join us!"

Samui looked at the Konoha nin, receiving shrugs before they headed towards the table that her friends were in.

Karui, the one who called her in the first place, kept speaking, not noticing the presence of the leaf nin...

"I thought the Raikage summoned you for a mission! How come..."

...At first. Then, she noticed Naruto.

Looking between Samui and Naruto repeatedly, and ignoring the snickers from Omoi and Atsui, Karui spoke up.

"How the hell did this happen!?"

Samui sighed at that, inwardly cursing her friend's temper. It was _so_ not cool. Samui was spared from the task of responding by Naruto himself.

"My team and I were sent here to give an official missive from the Hokage to the Raikage. We were told to hang around as an official response is crafted, and as we were being led to the hotel, Anko here-" he said while gesturing towards the purplette, who waved with a far-too-wide grin "-managed to annoy Samui-chan enough to get her to want to drink herself unconscious."

Hinata shook her head in exhasperation, even as Anko's shoulders shook in poorly restrained mirth. Naruto managed to outwardly seem casual, but the shine in his eyes said everything but, while Samui did her best to mantain her composure.

The constant twitching of her eyebrow made it impossible though, causing the rest of the people to laugh out loud, causing her to even give a tiny, barely perceptible blush, which only served to elicit more laughter.

Soon enough, they were all seated around the table, with Anko and Naruto being the only ones consuming alcohol, the rest being there more for the ambiance than anything else. Between the small talk, the snacks and the drinks, Yugito joined the group.

But, as all good things, their good mood had to end.

The end of their good mood came in the form of Kawashi Magiri. Magiri was, for all intents and purposes, a jobber. With the skillset of a mid-genin, the only reason he made chunin was because his team carried him to the finals, and his opponent screwed up one too many times in what seemed to be, to the judges, Magiri somehow interrupting his opponent.

At 6'1", with a somewhat muscular build, neck-length blue hair, and a tongue with much too big ease to spout lies and boasts, he was a strong candidate for the dictionary definition of asshole.

Flanking him were Amaneru Hashi, a pale, blonde-haired man, height of 5'9", short hair, with a sword handle poking over his right shoulder, and a sneer of perceived superiority on his face. His build was slim, and his rank was genin, having belonged to Magiri's original genin team and having failed the exams.

To the other side of Magiri was Kawashi Minoru, a 6'2 pale-skinned man, his physique as muscular as Magiri's, if not a bit more, though his flat nose and overtly square jaw, paired with his small, beady eyes and bald head gave him a shifty, yet dumb look. He was also a genin in rank, and his eyes seemed to shift between leering at the women, and glaring at Naruto.

As soon as they approached the table, Karui's entire team groaned, with Samui actually muttering in uncharacteristic fashion, " _Not these morons again..._ "

"So Leaf trash is being allowed in our bar now?"

Sighing out loud, Yugito was the one to respond.

"Go away, Magiri. We were having a good time until you showed up, we'd like to return to having a good time."

Magiri managed to double down on his application for the 'asshole of the year' award by pasting what seemed to be a mixture of a sneer, and a leer, on his face, somehow conveying the message that he was constipated, even as he spoke.

"You'd know about having a good time, wouldn't you, demon-bitch?"

Yugito glared harshly at Magiri, even as he turned his look towards Karui and Samui, before his gaze fell on Anko and Hinata. Or, more accurately, their buxom bosoms.

"Damn, these are some real women!"

Giving Naruto a disdainful sneer, he spoke, adressing the Purplette and Bluenette.

"Why don't the two of you ditch this wimpy brat and spend some time with real men? I could show you a real good time, unlike him. Heh, with him barely out of his diapers, I doubt he even knows what his tiny worm is good for."

By now, everyone at the table except Naruto was glaring heatedly at the three stooges. Naruto suddenly stood and pushed his chair back in a single, rapid motion, causing the troublemakers to prepare themselves for a fight.

Then, to everyone's surprise, horror , and outright beffuddlement, Naruto started undoing the buttons on his pants.

Before anyone could say a word, or even make a sound to stop him, a meaty * **THWACK!** * sounded across the room.

Various sharp inhales sounded around the room, as most females gave incredulous, awed, speculative, and even some lustful looks.

The men gave envious, respectful, or disgusted looks.

But it was natural. After all, Naruto had just slammed his bare manhood on top of the table that he previously sat around.

Yugito's eyes glazed over. Between Matatabi's constant stream of colorful and descriptive comments ever since they met Naruto at the village gates, to the easy conversation between the blondes, and the reveal of the monstrous thing Naruto kept in his trousers, her brain could do nothing but shut down.

The unflappable Samui was openly gaping, a visible blush covering her entire face, even as her lips flapped silently.

Karui was the one to break the silence.

"WHAT THE HELL, MAN!?"

Naruto gave Karui an unconcerned look, before asking.

"What the hell... what?"

' _Why did this just give me a wave of nostalgia?_ ' Were Hinata's thoughts for that instant, before Karui responded.

"What the hell would make you think whipping out your pecker was a good idea!? Eww, I was eating at this table!"

Naruto shrugged, before answering in an even tone.

"Well, asshole over here shows up, inserts himself into a conversation that has nothing to do with him, harasses my friends, and girlfriends, and then accuses me of having a small dick. I had to do something, but I doubt that violence would be a good diplomatic tool. Having said that..."

And then he gave another shrug.

Karui gaped for a bit, before speaking again.

"So you pull out your dick in front of everyone? Dear Kami, how big is that thing even?"

While Karui didn't notice her slip at the end of the sentence, Naruto's group did, causing Hinata to give a smug smirk even as Anko spoke up gleefully.

"8 Inches long and 2 and a half wide while soft, currently, and he's only 14! Still got some growing to do!"

Ignoring Anko's words, the renewed gapes of the people around him, and the desire to belt out a quick 'That's what she said', Naruto answered calmly.

"Yes, I pulled my dick out in front of the crowd composed of shinobi and kunoichi. You know, the people that kill, steal, seduce and abduct. Give me a break, if this reveal destroyed the innocence of anyone in here, or hurt their sensibilities, then they're not suited for the lifestyle demanded by the headband!"

Yugito managed to finally reboot her brain somewhat, one of her eyes glowing a luminous green unlike her usual blue, and her fingernails somewhat sharper than usual, as she spoke.

"Naruto-kun, please put your... member... away."

Watching his fellow Jinchuuriki struggling with her bijuu's influence on her libido, Naruto nodded graciously and 're-holstered his handcannon', so to speak, before standing up and placing a stack of ryo bills on the table.

"My team and I will retreat back to the hotel, relax for a bit. You guys know where we're at, so feel free to visit."

And like that, a stoic-faced Naruto, a gleefuly cackling Anko, and an exhasperated Hinata left 'The Rolling Thunder' bar, leaving whispers and speculations behind them.

"Did you see that thing?"

"It was a monster!"

"That would break a woman!"

"Are they supposed to even be this big?"

"Didn't that purple-haired lady say he was 14?"

"That's right! Kami-sama and the Holy Log, it'll get even _bigger_?"

"Holy log indeed, mhm~"

Listening to the whispered conversations, the giggles and the appreciative and delighted sounds coming from the Kunoichi, and seeing the sad, downtrodden, or grudgingly respectful looks in the other Shinobi, Magiri could only steam angrily, his teeth grinding.

' _T-that tree-hugging twerp! I'll get him back for this!"_

And just like that, Magiri made one of the worst decisions in his entire life.

 _ **-Nighttime, The Fluffy Cloud Hotel-**_

Magiri climbed up the outter side of the building, clinging to it by channeling chakra to his feet and hands, before clambering up the balcony. Picking the lock on the sliding glass doors, he tiptoes his way into the main space of the hotel room, the living room.

As he moved towards the room, he could hear loud moans, mewls and grunts. Freezing for an instant, he pulled a Kunai from his thigh pouch before returning to slinking towards the room.

Opening the door slowly, without a sounds, he started stuck to the walls, trying to use the shadows to hide his approach. Before he could reach halfway to the bed, he felt a hand clamping around his mouth and nose, even as another one dislocated the shoulder of his Kunai-holding hand.

Being dragged outside of the room while crying in pain, Magiri looked up to see the visage of the blonde holding him. Hearing someone speaking on the phone and calling for the reception, he turned towards that person, finding another version of the blonde. His focus was broken simultaneously as his arm, both by Naruto, curiously enough.

Once again, his screams were silenced by a hand on top of his mouth. The hand left his mouth for an instant, and as he geared up to scream, a filthy piece of cloth was shoved into his mouth.

It's sour, yet somewhat bitter taste attested to the fact that it was used to wipe away sweat, and maybe even other physical secretions.

15 minutes later, the entirety of his left arm's bones were broken, alongside with his right leg, a few ribs, and his jaw.

By the time a shinobi, who happened to be Yugito, reached the room, Magiri was already catatonic from the pain, and the only reason he wasn't foaming at the mouth was because of the cloth inside of it.

Seeing the shirtless, boxer-clad form of Naruto, standing triumphant over the asshole Magiri, hearing the sounds of lovemaking coming from the bedroom, and the scents of sweat, and the various juices...

Not caring about the multiple Naruto's in the room, Yugito jumped Naruto's bones, her Matatabi-increased stamina causing the two to go for literal hours straight.

The people in adjacent rooms were plagued for an entire night of moans, groans, grunts and even mewls.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **Not much to say. You already know I have a life beyond the website, and I try fitting writing in with it as much as possible, so I can't do much about the sporadic upload schedule. Just know that this story is neither in hiatus, discontinued, or in any way abandoned.**

 **That being said, please remember to leave a review, follow and/or favorite. They pay the artist's debts towards the fickle mistress that is inspiration, meaning she keeps the lights on longer inside our heads.**

 **This is FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	35. Hot cats and Speedtests

**Please endeavor to read the Author's Note at the end of the chapter, as I know most people do not do. It should explain the absence of updates.**

 **With that out of the way, let's go to the disclaimer!**

 **Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and everything related is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and whomever else managed to get very rich off of the drawn lines derived from the overactive imagination of a middle aged japanese man. I don't own squat.**

 **Enjoy!**

 _ **-The Fluffy Cloud, Diplomatic Suite, Kumo-**_

"GlkGhlkGlhkGlhk!"

The first thing anyone would see if they were to open the door to the room right now was the two-tailed Jinchuuriki kneeled on the floor, flanked by the Hyuuga Heiress and Konoha's Snake Mistress, all around a single person: Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto.

The male blond stood completely naked, his hands on the heads of the bluenette and the purplette women even as the blonde one engulfed him completely, his balls alternating between beating a drum rhythm on her chin, and taking long, sumptuous licks and sucks from the other two women, all of them looking up at him with bright, worshipping eyes, causing him to grunt as he felt his limit approaching.

In his defense, they _had_ been doing this for over 2 hours now, only alternating between which one sucks/licks what.

Feeling his finish approaching, Naruto nodded at the girls, causing them to double down in their intense ministrations, with Yugito releasing Naruto's cock from her throat, keeping only the head in her mouth and sucking hard, with Anko and Hinata licking and kissing the blonde's balls, even as they both stroked his shaft together.

The two felt his ballsack withdraw slightly into his body and quickly moved, placing themselves to each side of Yugito.

The blonde Kunoichi had kept up with her sucking, her cheeks having hollowed out by the intensity, the salty, addictive taste of Naruto's pre flowing freely onto her throat, before her mouth was assaulted by an intense blast of cum, filled completely by that single blast.

Surprised, and with her cheeks full, Yugito jerked back, exposing Naruto to the air, the only continued stimulus being the stroking hands of Hinata and Anko as he veritably painted the three women from head to chest in his seed. Their hair, face, neck, and chest were covered in so much cum that they could've probably used it to inseminate the entire female population of Kumo. It was hard to even see who was who under it all.

It was to this scene that the Raikage's contingent entered the room.

They had been summoned due to an irregularity. The people lodged in the 'shinobi suite' of the Fluffy Cloud hotel had called the reception, asking for a shinobi or kunoichi to deal with a minor matter that had come up.

Yugito had, coincidentally, been the one to have picked up this specific call. She checked in at the reception lobby and went up, but she never checked out, gave the desk an update, nothing. The fact that no noise, nor violence, came from the room gave the staff the idea that the problem was being taken care of, but so many hours later an no veridict had them contacting the Raikage's office.

Hearing about which room it was, and which of his ninja were sent to deal with the issue, Ay decided to make his presence known. He had appraised Karui, Samui, C, and Omoi of the situation, knowing that they were at least friendly towards the Konoha group, and they all trudged up together.

He never expected Yugito, one of his most professional, most serious, and sometimes emotionally distant Kunoichi, to be doing... This!

 _ **-Raikage's office-**_

Ay, the Yondaime Raikage, could only rub his face and sigh in exasperation. He returned his gaze to the completely relaxed blonde shinobi standing across from his desk, before moving it to his blonde kunoichi, Nii Yugito, who blushed uncharacteristically at that. His gaze then shifted over to the broken thing reminiscent of a human being that had been propped up at one of his office's corners.

' _I had no idea the human body could do that. Well, I guess you learn something new everyday._ '

Pushing his morbid fascination to the side, Ay broke the silence in the room.

"So, Michiru here," he nodded with his head towards the battered and broken shell of a man placed in a corner "snuck into your room in the middle of the night and tried assassinating you, you responded by destroying him. You asked for a Kumo ninja to be sent to your room to deal with it, said ninja ended up being Yugito here, an instead of dealing with it, you had sex. Is that what you're telling me?"

Yugito blushed brightly and looked down to her feet, even as Naruto shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah, that's the measure it."

Ay let out a heavy sigh, before speaking again.

"We'll go back to the two of you sleeping with eachother later. For now, let's focus on dealing with the idiotic pretzel here. What would you have me do with him?"

Anko glared at Michiru, mad that anyone had the gall to try to interrup her 'Blondie-kun orgasm service time' despite the fact that Naruto hadn't let something such as a pesky assassination attempt stop him from making Hinata and Anko melt into puddles of twitches of orgasms.

Still, it was the thought that mattered!

She and Hinata hadn't actually noticed Michiru at first, having been forced to fight for their consciousness as three Narutos ravaged each of them with no regards to the adjacent rooms, and with the blonde stealthily dispatching the man before he could become a threat, but when she was first made aware she had gone on a tirade, using the sort of language that would have a Jashinist scandalized, before threatening to enact various painful acts that involved her snake summons one way or another.

The suggestions had Naruto fighting hard to a the green tinge from creeping up his body, unflappable façade bedamned.

After having a fuully naked Yugito point out the fact that Michiru was, at the moment, nothing more than a shell, her excitment skyrocketed and she all but raped her foxy man, which lead to the other two girls wanting to join in, which had lead to the situation earlier in the morning.

Shrugging off her reverie, and dear god did she go on a tangent, Anko spoke up, pain, suffering and the limits of the human body and mind being her area of expertise.

"There's not really much that could be done to him at the moment. I don't know what Dicky Mcgee over there did to the asshole, but he's been absolutely, completely broken. He's pretty much dead in all but name. The most merciful thing to do would be to kill him, so..."

She finished with a shrug, leaving the decision in the hands of the Raikage himself. Ay muttered a " _Dumb bastard_ " before signaling for him to be collected and imprisioned, two of his ANBU operatives doing the deed, before refocusing on the situation at hand.

Raising his right eyebrow as he adressed the group, Ay spoke up non-challantly.

"Quite a show you put in back in your hotel room."

Yugito blushed heavily, Hinata mantained a stoic façade, the vaunted 'Hyuuga Face™' which was considered as much a Hyuga bloodline limit as the Byakugan, Anko grinned shamelessly and Naruto looked cool as a cucumber, not seeing anything special in the Raikage's non-question.

When no one took the bait and started speaking, Ay was both irritated and pleasantly surprised, as most people would've been so nervous in this situation that they'd be spilling their guts to him. He himself had to initiate the questioning line, with an actual question this time.

"What was all that about?"

Naruto shrugged, laughing sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, his fingers going through his spiky locks, as he spoke in what seemed to be an embarassed tone "You see Raikage-sama, when a man and a woman are in love, or very, very drunk..."

A vein throbbed on the man's forehead, and more than a few tick marks shared it's neighbourly space, before he hurled his desk out of his window in anger.

"STOP PLAYING AROUND, UZUMAKI!"

"Oh come on, Ay-dono, you walked into that one yourself!"

"THAT'S BESIDE THE POINt!"

"I am never beside the poin!" Naruto spoke with a surprisingly outraged tone "I always hit the right spot, ask them!"

As more veins popped on the man's forehead, Mabui, Ay's secretary who had been discussing the events of earlier in the day with the very descriptive, and very invested Karui and Samui, opened the door slightly, peeked in, saw the broken window and absence of desk and wrote something down on her legal pad

" _Repairs for a broken window and a missing, probably broken desk... Again. Check!_ "

Then, ignored by the people in the room as she went through her duty, Mabui stepped back out and closed the door behind her.

Ay, having noticed that Naruto was saying and doing everything just to annoy him, took a deep breath, reigned back his temper, and adressed him more seriously.

"This is not a trivial matter. Yugito is a proud Kunoichi of Kumo, a Jounin in rank, the container of the Nibi and protector of her nation, and, most of all, something akin to a niece to me. Any actions which could result in emotional manipulation that could either compromise Yugito as an asset for the village, or hurt her feelings, shall be dealt with, with extreme levels of violence as a basis. So answer me well, Uzumaki, for it might be the only time you'll get the chance to. What are your intentions in regards to Yugito?"

Naruto turned serious at that as well, running his hand through his long bangs, pushing them back over his head and giving his eyes and forehead more visible space, then letting out a sigh before speaking.

"Honestly speaking, I have no idea what this situation is, much less my intentions. I can honestly say that Yugito is a great person, I spent some time with her and the other Kumo teams back during our first chunin exams, and I figured out that they're the type of people one wouldn't oppose surrounding themselves with. I flirted with her, a lot. I did so with Karui and Samui as well."

He put his hands on the back of his head, untying his headband and placing it inside his pouch, trading it with a headband engraved with the Uzumaki Spiral, and no one missed the significance of this. Naruto at the moment wasn't speaking as Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, Jounin of Konoha, but as Uzumaki Naruto, heir to the legacy of the nation of Uzu, both as a statement of his honesty, and as a way to prevent pollitical fallout from anything stupid he might possibly say.

He then continued speaking.

"It's in my nature, so please don't take it in a meaningless, 'just another one' manner. I only flirt with genuinely good people, if you're a total bitch, annoying, or insufferable, then I won't touch you with a 10 foot pole. The thing is, what usually starts as teasing, friendly flirting, usually ends up with me and the target of my flirting seriously interested in eachother. I am currently very interested in Yugito, as I am in Karui and Samui, I can say that much. I'd like to forget all of this pollitical bullcrap and get to know them better, and see if something better for the both of us can come out of it."

Ay seemed very surprised by the honesty in Naruto's words, but Yugito was outright shocked.

What she knew and remembered of the blonde, ever since the chunin exams, were the facts that he was a shameless flirt, he had a girlfriend that accepted, and even encouraged this behaviour, and he was very much a pervert.

She was expecting him to be either a 'pump and dump' type man, running through women at his leisure, just to use their bodies, or to have an actual girlfriend for emotional reasons, and see all others as just fuckbuddies, someone he could go and have fun with, and she was okay with that.

After all, he was handsome, funny, charming, and had a plethora of desirable traits. She, on the other hand, didn't have a romantic life at all. Being at first subjected to great amounts of bigotry had her creating a cold demeanor around her, that she used to keep up at almost all times. While this protected her from the attacks by the Jinchuuriki haters, when those reduced to a minority, they became a problem. She was basically unatainable for everybody else.

With the way Matatabi's words and chakra could affect her libido, she had no problem screwing, and getting screwed, by the blonde, if just to try to sate her urges. To know that he actually intended to have something serious...

Ay saw the rapid expression shifts on Yugito's face, and he started thinking.

The two-tailed Jinchuuriki used to be worse than Samui. While Samui holds herself coolly, and sometimes even frosty, Yugito was mostly expressionless. Befriending some of those in her generation, being apprenticed to B and cared for by Ay, she learned to relax, and slacken her defenses in the presence of said people.

The fact that Naruto had managed to initially get her to say even a word as far back as Konoha, nevermind the fact that he had her swallowing his baby batter, told Ay that he would be very, very good to help Yugito heal. Deciding on giving a better life to one who suffered a childhood of hatred, Ay nodded to himself.

"I will approve of you courting Yugito as long as our villages are, at least, neutral towards eachother. Any shifts on the international pollitical landscape with results opposite to that, and you're through."

Naruto let out a breath of relief that he didn't know he had been holding in, looking at Yugito and giving her a grin and thumbs up. Yugito responded by smiling demurely, a blush on her cheeks as she looked away from Naruto's gaze.

A new desk was, soon enough, carried back into the office by a team of Genin on a D-rank, before Ay sat himself behind it and rifled through an absurdly, obscenely large amount of paperwork.

"Back to more official matters, my top people are in the process of translating our chosen response to legalese, you should be cleared to leave by tomorrow if you will."

Naruto nodded appreciatively at that, having pulled the switch between his Uzu headband and his Konoha headband without anyone even actually noticing. He then spoke up.

"Well, that leaves us with only one pending matter."

At the questioning looks from Yugito and Ay, Naruto spoke.

"I didn't forget your challenge to a race, Ay. I will thoroughly enjoy learning everything Kumo Genin and Chunin know about jutsu."

Ay grinned at that, his voice gruff, yet with an undertone of excitement as he responded "You really think you're faster than me, kid?"

"No, I don't just think I'm faster. I _Know_ I am."

"BRING IT ON!"

 _ **-2 hours later, Private training grounds in the mountain range-**_

The two blondes, Naruto and Ay, were preparing for the what was shaping up to be the most intense contest of speed since the 3rd shinobi world war, when Ay and B ran into Namikaze Minato.

Naruto was doing some light stretches, limbering himself up for agile, nimble movement, while Ay coiled up and prepared his muscles for intense bursts of speed.

The two walked to the middle of the clearing, their audience a large distance away in order for them not to possibly accidentally die during the battle, before Ay spoke up.

"So, how are we doing this?"

Naruto responded by picking up a moderately sized pebble from the ground, and tossing it up and down lightly as he spoke "I'll toss this pebble straight upwards. As soon as it touches the ground, on of us has to tag the other one and then run away. Tags only count if they're in areas that would deal good damage to a person's health, like the torso over vitals, or if they're made on legs, as if crippling the opposition. For 15 minutes we'll be cashing eachother, using all possible non-deadly methods to either chase after the target, or to slow down their attacker, and the be it at the end of the time is the loser. Does that sound okay?"

Ay nodded in response, before cracking his neck, followed by his fists.

Naruto tossed the pebble upwards in between the two, and everyone watched with baited breath as it fell...

Before it hit the ground with a 'clack'.

In that instant, the two shinobi became an almost indistinct motion blur. They were throwing out punches, kicks, cops and palm strikes at eachother, ending up nullifying eachother through symmetrical hits, fist against fist, shin against shin, before they both hopped back.

The audience was flabbergasted. The two were moving absurdly fast, and they were using neither the lightning armour, nor the flying thunder god to do so! It was pure physical prowess, until Ay grinned, before Naruto rubbed a hand on his stomach.

Ay spoke up "Pretty good for a kid your age, but you shouldn't mess with the big leagues. You'll probably be able to reach my speed if you life for another 75 or something years!"

Naruto smirked at the Raikage, causing him to narrow his eyes, before widening them again as he felt a delayed shockwave slam into him, causing him to stagger back lightly.

He looked back up at Naruto, grinned, and then everyone heard the sparking of electricity.

The following instant, Naruto was sent flying at tremendously high speed away from where he was stationed. Then, an orange flash and Naruto had disappeared, just an instant before Ay's neck chop was about to connect, before Ay was kicked hard in the ribs, which he reacted almost instantly to by throwing a chop to Naruto's liver.

The two once again were pushed back, with Naruto flipping through the air before landing on his feet, the tiny amount of dried blood on the corner of his mouth showing the full function of his regeneration, while Ay's armor easily protected him from the kick. Noticing the blood, Ay smirked.

Naruto responded by vanishing in a flash of orange, before Ay felt a hard blow actually damage him through his armor, bruising his chest.

At that instant, the two decided to ramp up things.

Ay vanished in a blue blur, while Naruto did the same in an orange flash.

All the observers could see were the splotches of orange, from Naruto's Hiraishin, and some light trails of blue electricity, from the Raikage's lightning armor, filling their chosen arena, but to the two fighters, things were a flurry of thrown punches, kicks, elbows, knees, palms and chops. Ay kept speeding up, with Naruto trying to keep up and increasing the use of his Hiraishin.

Eventually, though, Naruto started taking some blows. Naruto was teleporting, and while he was used to the technique itself, he wasn't used to having to move so fast, in such a wide open area without the use of a beacon. Since he had to project his own target destination, his basic Hiraishin did not equate the speed of his father's perfected form, which was reflected in the various blows that Ay managed to lay on him.

Soon, Ay was moving at full speed, not seen by their audience except for the barest of flickers when he hit Naruto, losing a tiny bit of speed at that instant.

Having noticed that, Naruto decided to go for a gamble to make space for himself. He released a light coating of lightning-nature chakra throughout his entire musculature, connected the nerves to eachother.

Instead of relying on the information being sent from his brain to his body to try and get Ay during that tiny time frame, he released the control to his muscle memory for a bit. That instant was enough to buy him some time to even the odds.

" **Mangekyou Sharingan!** "

Naruto's characteristic sapphire-blue eyes changed into his mangekyo, the intercepting elipses forming a triangle, with a stylized, 4-pointed straight-edged shuriken.

Ay pumped even more chakra into his armor, electricity wildly flowing off of him, his muscles pumping up lightly, and his blonde hair going up in the air, releasing the full might of his armor, before going for the blow that he expected to finish this dispute, a hard chop to the back of the head. Even with super-regeneration, if you take enough damage in a single instant then you're actually affected. A concussion would've worn off in a bit, 15 to 30 seconds at least, but those would be 15 whole seconds Naruto would be unconscious.

The Raikage's plans were spoiled when Naruto countered by using the outter side of his wrists to push both of the Raikage's hands up, before laying a double palm strike on his stomach, sending him carreening back.

' _What just happened? His body shouldn't be able to keep up on it's own!_ '

What Ay didn't know, is that it didn't.

You see, the Mangekyou Sharingan are a special pair of eyes. After the transition between three tomoe and Mangekyou, a few basic abilities are unlocked by the eyes, which everyone with them has access to in varying degrees.

There's the **Amaterasu** ( **Heavenly illumination** ) , a set of black flames so powerful that they cannot be put out by water, burn for 7 days straight, and can overpower all other fire;

The **Tsukuyomi** ( **Moon Reader** ), which is one of the strongest genjutsu in existance, and that allows the user to force their victim to experience whichever experiences they desire them to, with an impaired sense of passage of time. One could make 3 seconds stretch out to 72 hours in their victim's mind if they were good enough;

 **Susano'o** ( **Tempestuous God of Valor** ), which is an etheral warrior made of chakra with a specific set of skills and weapons, capable of being summoned either partially, with you choosing which parts came out, our in it's entirety as a giant weapon-bearing attack/defense tool;

And **Izanagi** and **Izanami** , which are secret techniques that allow one to turn reality into an illusion. temporarily rejecting reality, rendering it nothing more than an fiction for short amounts of time, or to turn illusion into reality by locking the mind of your enemy within said illusion, forcing them to relieve those facts over and over again, as if they were the reality they were experiencing, respectively, both with the heavy cost of your eyes. Each time you use one of these two, one of your eyes permanently loses it's sight;

Unknown to most, is that the Mangekyou can possess more abilities than those. When an individual awakens their Mangekyou, they also unlock an ability specific to their eyes. For Itachi, it was the three weapons that his **Susano'o** was capable of alternatively wielding, **Yata's Mirror** , **Totsuka's Blade** and **Yasaka Beads** ; Obito Uchiha's eyes awakened the ability to send things to an alternate dimension, **Kamui** , one of them allowing the transport at a distance, and the other at short range, making for easy abduction and transport for obito, and allowing him to temporarily make himself intangible; Uchiha Shisui's ability was the **Kotoamatsukami** , the strongest, most broken genjutsu in existance. You could completely hipnotize someone, and even do something such as implanting false memories, making it possible to convince the most obstinate of people, and to overall manipulate even nations by hypnotizing important pollitical figures.

Naruto's first set of eyes, however, did not come from Shisui, but from Danzo's old tool, Akame, who had awakened his **Mangekyou** , and had gained an individual ability that he probably hadn't understood or dechipered. The left eye of the pair severely boosted the neural response speed of the individual, making him think faster, and such react faster, plan for things faster, and so on and so forth.

The other one, though, creates a small-radius bubble where time is slightly slowed down. At the moment, it was just a few fractions of a second, and the radius was basically one or two inches above Naruto's body, but with his increased Neural response, and his Hiraishin, it was enough.

Soon enough, Ay saw himself incapable of landing a clean blow on the blonde. Whenever he went for a strike, it was deflected by a forearm, leg, or simply dodged or Hiraishin'd away from.

Naruto, having managed to gauge Ay's maximum speed, started his counter attack. He vanished in a Hiraishin, appearing behind Ay. Ay spun around in an instant, attempting to chop him in response, but before he could even initiate the attack, Naruto had vanished in a flash of orange.

Then, the flashes of orange around the field became ludicrous in amount, forcing the watchers to avert their gaze, with the exception of B who wore his sunglasses, though he couldn't see them either.

' _Ay... He really is a monster! I have to use so much just to keep up with him... Just how fast was my dad, that was said to be faster than him?... Doesn't matter though, I can win this!_ '

The problem with the Hiraishin in relation to pure superspeed was positioning. With Ay's lightning armor, he controlled how fast he went, where he went to, his position at arrival, and many such factors. With the Hiraishin, you arrived at your location in the same pose that you left in, the only reason that wasn't noticed was because Minato, and, to a lesser degree, Naruto, managed to re-position themselves before the flash of light vanished, so the watchers didn't notice.

That meant that, in case the fight was taken away from the ground, the advantage would be Ay's, since he can control his momentum, angle himself before moving so that he can bounce from the environment around him, and keep up a constant attack pattern. Minato counteracted this weakness by using his Kunai, flashing without needing a starting place. Naruto, however, had something different.

" **Air Walk!** "

The blonde condensed air particles, creating translucent, yet solid, platforms which he could step on, and kick away from. Knowing that Ay wouldn't expect it, Naruto teleported upwards.

Ay shot up in order to chase the blonde, but he was surprised when Naruto, instead of simply falling due to gravity, actually shot downwards as if he kicked hard off of something, landing a strong blow to his gut that had him coughing blood, and shooting to the ground, creating a small crater of impact.

In a flash of orange, Naruto was back on the ground across from the crater. Ay climbed out of the crater, but before he could do much, B's voice rang throughout the decimated training field.

"You're out of time to tag mister nine, big bro. Now, it's time to go! Wheee!"

Ignoring B's rapping, Ay gave Naruto an appreciative nod, before depowering from his lightning armor. Naruto heaved out a sigh of relief, before speaking.

"Thank god that's over. Being outrun by an old man is freaking embarrassing."

Ay grinned smugly at this "So you admit that I'm faster."

With a shrug, Naruto responded.

"Well, yeah. In terms of raw speed, you're probably the best alive right now. I still won though, and I managed to keep up with you at full speed. Gotta count for something. I'm just glad B called time, I don't know if I'd be able to **Kawarimi** with my clone in time to avoid the chop you were aiming at my spine. I might be able to regenerate it, but it'd freaking hurt."

"If you knew I was going to go for a chop to the spine, then why wouldn't you dodge?"

"I shredded my leg muscles using an incomplete technique. They're healing as we speak. My eyes and mind might've been able to keep up with the movement, but my body cannot."

"Incomplete technique? You mean that thing you did to suddenly kick off of the air? I knew that was suspicious, no-one can just accelerate that suddenly, not even that old bag of bones Onoki using his flight technique."

Naruto rolled his shoulder and spat out a gob of blood, before speaking.

"I still won this, though. I tagged you last before the time was up. I want my acess pass."

Ay shrugged, tossing a rolled up scroll at Naruto, which the blonde snatched up from the air.

"Nice. Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I have important things, and people, to do."

With that said, and in a flash of orange, Naruto, Yugito, Anko and Hinata were gone.

 _ **-Following day, Kumogakure village Gates-**_

"I'll be making sure to take as many missions to this area as I can, Yugi-chan, so that we can see eachother often. Don't forget to push chakra into your hairband if you need me. I'll be there in a flash."

Yugito raised an eyebrow at that, her hands on her hip as she spoke "That pun was bad, and you should feel bad."

Giving her an unrepentant grin and a shrug, Harry surprised Yugito by pulling her into a warm, tight hug, before pulling back and waving at her, before speeding off with Hinata and Anko, the first pouting and the second smirking at something they said between themselves.

Yugito let out a heavy sigh, already missing the physical contact, ignoring Matatabi as she continuously looped the memories of her physical interactions with Naruto and doing doing erotic things to herself. She turned towards the Raikage, who offered her a nod and smile, before they all headed back into the village.

 _ **-On the way towards Konoha-**_

"!"

Naruto, Anko and Hinata jumped away, breaking formation in order to avoid the shower of lava that absolutely melted the trees they had been standing on.

Looking away from the molten slag passing off as the remaining of the trees, Naruto turned towards the source of the magma, feeling their chakra signatures moving into his sensory range. Soon enough, a squad of shinobi landed in front of them.

The first one Naruto noticed was a man with red hair, moustache and beard which tapered off to a point, wearing a large headpiece consisting of a three pointed crown-like ridge, bearing both an Iwagakure forehead protector, a ring, and a prominent black piece of armour running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He wore a long-sleeved light-red shirt and pants, with mesh-armour shirt and fitted black suit underneath, along with calf-length sandals. Around his waist he wore a brown sash that held a brown armour-like breast plate with a pouch in the front, a brown back plate on the back that is connected to the front with mesh armour, and armoured lapels falling to the sides. He was Roshi of the Lava Style, the Jinchuuriki of the 4 tails.

The second one was a very tall man, the physically largest of the group. He was heavily armoured, wearing some sort of armor with a furnace on the back that, according to information reports, emits steam. He had light brown eyes and his armour extended all the way to the bottom half of his face, covering it up. Underneath the armour covering the bottom half of his face, he wore a white cloth which also covered both sides of his face and the top of his head. Aside from his red armour, he wore a red conical straw hat over the white cloth, and it seemed to be composed of the same material of his armour and furnace. He wore an Iwagakure forehead protector on a black cloth, and over his armour, he wore a black gi, with the sleeves seemingly torn off and black gloves. He also wore what seemed to be a bronze-coloured ring around his neck which he wore over his red armour. He was Han, the Jinchuuriki of the 5 tails.

The third one was the only female of the group, with short, black hair and distinct, pink eyes, which were accentuated by her eyelashes running upwards at the corners. She wore the standard attire of the Iwa-nin consisting of a red uniform with her right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg, the brown Iwagakure flak jacket, fishnet tights and a skirt over them. Her feet were adorned with standard shinobi sandals, and her hands in a pair of gloves. She was Kurotsuchi, the granddaughter of Onoki, the third Tsuchikage.

The rest of their group seemed to be irrelevant, probably a group of mediocre jounin if Naruto's measuring look was correct, but they were 5 more jounin regardless.

The silence between the groups was broken when Kurotsuchi spoke.

"Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, by the order of the Iwagakure council, you are to be executed!"

Naruto could only really respond to that in one way.

"Aww shit."

 _ **-TBC-**_

 **AN:**

 **Kept you waiting, huh? (And kudos to whomever gets the refference, by the way). I know I haven't updated in a long time, but fear not, for Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles is in no way, shape or form abandoned! As I have previously said, real life often comes a-knocking, time becomes a scarce commodity, and uploads slow down to a veritable crawl, but, as I did with Harry Potter: His Own Person, my first attempt at an actual fanfic that I truly believe you all should read (** _ **Not a shameless plug, not at all!**_ **), I would've updated the title with it's status, be it abandoned, on hiatus, up for adoption, or anything else.**

 **That being said, please remember to favorite/follow, and to leave a review, as those show me just how much you truly like this story! This has been FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	36. Burnt out: Siblings in Burden clash!

**Disclaimer: Screw this, you already know what I (don't) own!**

 **-** _ **Tsuchikage Tower, Iwagakure no Sato-**_

Onoki, the third Tsuchikage, made his way through the reception office in a more relaxed mood than he had felt in a while. He had been having a pretty shit few months now, starting with finding out that the Yellow flash and the Red Death had had a child together.

He saw said child, a 14 year old, manage to defeat the immortal and unlimited chakra-forms of the first and second Hokages, before sending Orochimaru of the Sannin packing, displaying the fact that he had access to the thrice-accursed Hiraishin, high level fuuinjutsu that had made his predecessor shit himself to the point of organizing a joint effort with Kumo and Kiri, who were also shitting themselves in fear, to wipe out the Uzumaki, and the goddamn Sharingan!

The fact that the child was also an S-rank swordsman, taught by Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai, and taught in the art of Taijutsu by Fuurinji Hayato, two of the few people older, and stronger, than him in the world, and also the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, the 9-tailed fox made things absolutely ridiculous.

Despite the fact that the child had decided to let the grudge between Iwa and Konoha, created during the 2nd and 3rd wars, die out, his people were still terrified. The Yellow Flash was pretty much Iwa's boogeyman, and the knowledge that his spawn, capable of using his jutsu that lead to the death of hundreds of shinobi, was still alive, almost had his people rioting. He had re-established order in the village, gotten thigns back on track with the civillians, and had warned the shinobi side of things to not needlessly antagonize the boy, lest the actually provoke his anger.

After dealing with so much bullshit, he decided that he deserved a vacation, and he went away for a week to some of the natural hot water springs on the outskirts of Earth country, letting the council take charge of the village's affairs. Said week had ended recently, and it was a calmer, more relaxed Onoki that stepped into his office, and behind his chair.

Well, at least he was relaxed until he noticed that his official stamp wasn't in it's rightful place.

Well, call it OCD, old age, senility, or just a consequence of surviving for as long as he did, but Onoki was absolutely anal about the placement of his workplace tools, especially with the Tsuchikage's stamp, which was basically the confirmation of the legal validity of a piece of paper. If you had a soggy napkin with instructions for mandatory swimsuit day for all Kunoichi over 16 and under 40, as long as the Tsuchikage's stamp was there, it was the word of the law within Iwa.

Knowing that someone touched his stamp, despite being deliberatly instructed not to under the pain of extended torture, followed by an equally painful death, had Onoki using one of his contingency tools.

His desk had a set of seals in it that were linked to the stamp. Said stamp would only work on his desk, and any piece of paper marked by the stamp was automatically copied and added to a secret compartment of his desk.

It was a measure instituted by him, after his predecessor, in a drunken binge, moved forth a piece of legislation that institutionalized the use of thongs and G-strings as regulation undergarments por Iwa Kunoichi. It had taken 4 weeks to have the measure reversed as all the male council members, and more than a few of the female ones, absolutely adored the idea, and it had created a 5-month long period of female resentment towards Muu, the second Tsuchikage, and a life of no sex from then on.

Shrugging off the memories, Onoki opened the secret compartment and checked out the topmost piece of paper of the pile, the only addition in his absence. Speed-reading the contents of the missive, Onoki paled severely, before sliding the missive back into the compartment and slamming it shut.

He rushed out of his office, barking out orders to his stationed **TREMOR** agents to detain the entirety of the council during his absence, before taking to the skies through the use of his flight technique, rapidly speeding towards Kumo territory.

' _Kurotsuchi, you foolish child, to take such a mission! I just hope I make it in time._ '

 _ **-Konoha, Hokage's office-**_

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage of Konoha, god of shinobi, and a man near his rightful retirement (again), stopped in the middle of his document signing, a wave of... something passing through his spine.

He put down his reading material, pushed his chair away from the desk, and walked towards the window of his office.

Tsunade, who had been drinking from her bottle of Sake while reading through a Kunoichi-geared book with the title of ' _ **1500 Exercises for flexibility: How to please your shinobi**_ ', looked up from her choice of literature, only to spot her sensei's shoulders shaking.

She was about to ask him what was wrong, before her, and the **ANBU** stationed around the room, were surprised by the man bursting into peals of laughter. After 5 minutes of almost non-stop laughter, which had the others in the room ready to call in a Yamanaka, and the men in white coats, Hiruzen finally relaxed slightly, wiping the tears away from his face, and letting out only the occasional chuckle.

Feeling the questioning look from the slug sannin, Hiruzen waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry, I'm okay. I just had the feeling that someone else just understood the meaning of an uncooperative council."

Still looking askew at her sensei, and half-wondering whether she should confiscate his pipe, Tsunade shrugged before returning to her book.

 _ **-Lightning Country-**_

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto had been enjoying a pretty good week. He had all but secured the Konohamaru Corps as his students, because honestly, there's no way they'll fail the test, got to go to Kumo, bonded with Yugito, laid the seeds for the same with Karui and Samui, and gained access to the Kumogakure Genin, Chunin and TokuJo libraries by beating the Raikage out in a game of tag via Timeout.

His perfect week was pretty much derailed by the presence of the people across from him.

A squad of Iwa nin had, apparently, been ordered to kill him, despite the fact that he had told Onoki that he was willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

' _He said that he'd not hold me to my father's actions. If he wants to go back on his word, then I'll send him a message he won't forget._ '

Naruto, his face serious, turned away from the people across him for a moment, directing his words towards Hinata and Anko.

"You'll be taking the group of Jounin. Go all out, do whatever you want except permanently crippling or killing them. I'll be taking the two Jinchuuriki. Create distance from our fight, or you might die."

Hinata and Anko nodded, their faces serious as well, and as Kurotsuchi geared up to spout some sort of demeaning or derogatory words, she got surprised by the appearance of the Hyuga girl in the middle of her group in a shunshin. She had only time to jump away, before she watched all members of her group get struck by the famed Jyuken of the Hyuga clan.

They managed to not be knocked out instantly, but they were clearly debilitated. But her observation was cut short as she leaned her head to the side, a kunai grazing her cheek courtesy of the snake mistress of Konoha.

During these exchanges, Roshi and Han were staring Naruto down, while the blond's mind was rapidly crafting up and discarding plans.

The three dashed towards eachother at an unknown, mutual signal, with Naruto being forced to exchange blows with both other Jinchuuriki at once, but still capable of keeping pace, since the other two had to tone themselves down in order not to hamper eachother.

Finding an opening in the guards of his oponents, Naruto pointed his index finger at Roshi, a blast of air pressure pushing him back and causing him to ragdoll through the air for a bit in surprise, before he righted himself and planted his feet on a treebranch.

Han, seeing that Roshi was no longer in the way, started speeding up his assault on the blonde, his fists and feet clad in hard, somewhat heavy armor, gradually picking up speed, with small clouds of steam seeming to occasionally waft out from the junctures of the plates.

The more steam Han released, the faster and stronger his attacks were, but Naruto had just fought the Raikage the previous day, so this speed wasn't so impressive.

He was surprised, however, when Han dashed away, only for a coat of Lava to suddenly be right in front of him. Not intending on testing the limits of his regeneration, Naruto vanished in a shunshin, only to be met back up by Han's assault.

The pattern repeated, with Han keeping Naruto busy, and then moving away to allow Roshi's Lava to end the blonde, with said blonde managing to move out of the way with the Shunshin.

Seeing that their strategy hadn't gotten the blonde even a bit winded, Roshi and Han decided to go more seriously.

The small amounts of steam wafting from Han intensified in amount, creating a sort of nimbus that was sticking to his form, like a cloak of scalding steam. Roshi, on the other hand, was covered in a chakra cloak that seemed to glow bright as lava, a large amount of heat released from him as well.

Seeing the other two Jinchuuriki access their Bijuu's chakra, Naruto covered himself in a coat of reddish-orange chakra, in order to resist the others'.

The three Jinchuuriki dashed in again, returning to the exchange of blows, Han's moves now stupidly faster than before, reminiscent of a steam-powered train after picking up speed, his cloak of steam capable of creating up to 2nd degree burns for prolonged contact with opponents.

Roshi, on the other hand, could actually melt flesh off of bones with his hits, even blocked ones, leaving dodging as the best response. Other than that was the fact that each blow he threw was followed by a gob of lava shooting off of him.

Naruto had to face the two seriously, increasing the density of his bijuu cloak on the area of contact with Han whenever he parried his hits, and outright moving the fuck out of Roshi's. The battle between Jinchuuriki was heating up, literally.

The other fights, however, were not much different.

Hinata had managed to close over half of the combined tenketsu of her attackers, with them being at low to mid level jounin in skill at most, but they kept standing up. Knowing that she couldn't just kill them forced Hinata to limit what skills she could use.

Anko, on the other hand, was suffering from the opposite thing. She didn't have to be careful of accidentally kill her opponent, she had to actually actively make sure she didn't get killed herself. Her opponent was High-jounin in skill, while Anko herself was only borderline High jounin, but she could've probably bridged this tiny gap in skill were it not for the stipulation that she couldn't go for the kill.

She was a snake mistress, for Log's sake! Her taijutsu was based around using her flexibility to avoid hits and soften up the oponent, before siccing her snakes at them and letting them get poisoned, rapidly killing them. Without access to killer techniques, she had to constantly be on the move, weaving, dodging and bobbing out of the way of punches, kicks, earth spears, rock blasts, and even lava gobs!

Something had better change soon, or things would go to hellin a handbasket.

 _ **-Iwagakure no Sato-**_

The members of the Iwa council were discussing amongst eachother, words of speculation and theories flying around the room. They had been summoned to the council chambers before being locked in, on the orders of the Tsuchikage.

While most of them had no idea for the reason behind this, Akedase Shiba knew damn well why. Somehow, the old man had found out about him using his official stamp.

' _No matter, by now those filthy demons Roshi and Han have already taken care of the offspring of the blasted Yellow Flash. When he returns with the news, I'll become a hero to the village, and he will be unable to even touch me unless he wants a riot to break out. My family shall be avenged!_ '

The man smiled absentmindedly, his mind taking him through fantasies of what rewards he would be given for his ' _good deed_ '.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

' _I hope I'm not too late to stop things from progressing! This conflict could lead to a war we do not desire._ '

Onoki could only pray to whichever deities would listen that his people hadn't yet crossed paths with the Namikaze boy. Knowing that wishes and prayers went unanswered more often than not, he put in even more speed into his flight technique, heading towards where he estimated the conflict to occur.

 _ **-At the conflict-**_

Tadashi Minoru hated the yellow flash, and everything related to him. You'd think that would be a given with him being an Iwa-nin, it was pretty much a cultural thing to hate Namikaze Minato there, but no. To him, it was a little more personal.

And by a little, I really meant a lot.

During the older times, the Tadashi family had started out as a civillian one, with the ocasional shinobi or kunoichi spawning from it, but sometime during the second war, the entirety of the family's members started enlisting into the corps.

Not many of them were particularly gifted or talented in the shinobi arts, ending up as carreer genin, and, occasionally, chunin.

Everything changed during the days of the third war.

The need for more able-bodied fighters for Iwa, and with the advent of wartime field-promotions, the members of the Tadashi minor clan, for it was what they had become, had begun to gain a bit more prestige. The sheer fact that so many individuals from the same clan started rising in the ranks so fast, leading to more than a few to even make jounin, was being observed and praised for the village.

Wanting more opportunities to get promoted, and more prestige, the entirety of the family pushed to be put on the frontlines.

Minoru had been stabbed in the stomach during a skirmish with a small group of leaf nin, and that forced him to be sent back to their base camp, while the rest of his family kept on fighting.

Then, The Battle of Kannabi Bridge happened.

Of the fighters present in the platoon that participated in that fight, 40% were Tadashi clan members, which figured out to about 85% of the total number of clan members.

The Yellow flash absolutely devastated them. His mother, father, sister and brothers, nieces and nephews, slaughtered.

Of the remaining 15% of the Tadashi clan members, only 7% remained in shinobi service afterwards, the rest deciding to retire into civillian lives. This lead to the Tadashi clan being looked down upon by the other clans, both major and minor.

It's pretty safe to say that Tadashi Minoru absolutely detested anything to do with the yellow flash.

Which is why he didn't care about the aftereffects of the Jyuuken, or that he permanently blew out his Tenketsu, but only on making sure that the Namikaze brat suffered, and died.

A few handsigns, forcibly pushing his chakra through tenketsu that were supposed to be closed to the point of shattering them, and a pillar of earth surprised the Hyuga bint when it slammed into her back...

Pushing her right in the way of one of Roshi's lava blasts.

The horrified face on the Namikaze brat's face when he saw this brought a warmth to Minoru's heart, making his carreer-finishing move worth it.

In a second, Naruto had vanished in a flash of orange light, before reappearing a few kilometers away, holding both Hinata and Anko.

While Anko was sweating, bruised and a bit cut, she was the one better off.

Throughout the entirety of Hinata's right side, face, arm and leg, there was a nasty burn. Her eyes were unaffected, but through the way they swam, one could see that she was in intense pain.

Not even asking a question, Naruto dug deep into Kabuto's medical knowledge and started healing her to the best of his capabilities.

After 5 minutes of healing, Naruto had Hinata stabilized. The Hyuga girl smiled up at the blonde, before losing her conciousness.

Naruto gingerly handed her over to Anko, who had taken the time to take a breather and recover some chakra.

The purplette placed Hinata's head on her lap, smoothing her hair over.

As soon as he was sure that Hinata was out of danger, Naruto's mood shifted.

Anko had seen many things in her life. As a kunoichi, and especially as a T&I expert, she was regularly exposed to brutality, blood, gore, violence, all things that would make most people die of heart attacks.

Unlike Ibiki, who preferred the hands-off, talk you into jumping off a cliff method, Anko was more of the 'Plyers, hammers, screws and fingernails' persuasion, so she had honed the art of controlling her victim's emotions, and to incite fear, terror and horror at the simple mention of a name.

At this moment, none of this mattered.

Nails, plyers, screws, electrical cables, beehives, sensory deprivation, psychological attacks, genjutsu, none of those encapsulated the true meaning of fear.

Naruto didn't look livid, mad, or even angy. No, it was worse.

His face was devoid of emotion. Calling his face blank would be a favor at this moment.

When he spoke, his tone was equally devoid of emotions, one way or another, and Anko couldn't even twitch a muscle as she was subjected to that horrible, foreign sound on the usually flirty, sunny, friendly blonde.

"Take care of Hinata for a bit, Anko. I'll be right back."

Not giving the purplette the time to respond, Naruto vanished in a flash of orange, and Anko finally found the chance to take a breath in what felt like an eternity.

 _ **-At the clearing with the Iwa-nin-**_

"I'm telling you, we should chase after them! For Kami's sake, you all saw what happened! As soon as one of them got even a little bit hurt, he ran away with his tail tucked between his legs!"

The rest of the non-elite shinobi in the clearing were smirking proudly, the knowledge that they ran off the Namikaze brat, after hurting one of his harlots, inflating their sense of self-importance, and their perceived level of strength.

After all, they forced the only current user of the Hiraishin away, that meant that they could take on any S-rank, right?

Amongst the boisterous, boastful nin, Kurotsuchi kept quiet. She was a kunoichi for years straight, devoted to her village and her cause. She adopted the hatred of the yellow flash, as it had become a cultural thing in their village, and she thought that she'd enjoy destroying his heir. Worst case scenario, she'd simply look at it like she would another mission, and think nothing more of it.

Yet, her heart felt heavy. She saw the pain that flashed through the blonde's face when his girlfriend was hit by Roshi's attack. The agony he felt on her behalf, the sheer _despair and misery_ he exuded for that one moment before he vanished... It brought a bitter taste to her mouth.

She had always held the image of an enraged, mad demon in her mind whenever she picture Namikaze Minato, going through innocent Iwa-nin doing nothing more than their duty, and tearing them apart painfully and with no pity. She had automatically projected this same image onto his son, based on the descriptions of him that had him casually, freely and nonchallantly doing deeds of importance, and displays of great power, singing around S-rank jutsu left and right, and fighting off mythical, and powerful, individuals.

She, as most Iwa, had gone towards the opposite extreme of Hero-worship for those of great fame. They had been villified, and, consquently, dehumanized, as all infamous figures eventually are.

Seeing the look in his eyes... Seeing him _feel_ so intensely... Kurotsuchi didn't know what to think.

Roshi and Han, on the other hand, stayed away from the rest of the group, their intuition telling the that things weren't over so easily. It's said that people can understand one-another by crossing fists, and the brief understanding that the two Iwa Jinchuuriki gained of Konoha's Jinchuuriki told them that they should prepare to weather the coming storm.

They were all pulled out of their thoughts when an orange light shone for an instant a few dozen meters away from them, the flashing light depositing the form of the blonde they were previously fighting back into combat with them.

And as one, they all froze, a massive chill going down their spines. Kurotsuchi gulped lowly, cold sweat suddenly rolling down the back of her neck. Roshi and Han possessed a level of trepidation shared with their partners, and the rest of the squad was almost shitting itself.

The blonde's face was an absolutely blank canvas. Neither his eyes, nor his face, displayed a hint of his thoughts. Even his body language seemed to be blank.

A puff of smoke deposited a sheathed Katana at the left side of his waist.

Naruto's right hand slowly reached for the 1 1/2 feet-long handle, before he started slowly, almost lazily drawing the blade, the almost-silent hiss of the metallic edge gliding across the interior of the scabbard filling the ears of the present shinobi like an explosive tag detonating right next to their heads, before the blonde started speaking in a light tone, one eerily devoid of emotion that had them all cringing.

"You know, I tend to believe myself to be a pretty nice guy. I don't fight for stupid reasons, I don't kill when I don't need to, I try to spread love as much as I possibly can, and I seldom lie.

When I spoke to the Tsuchikage, I proposed dropping animosity between myself and Iwa for my father's actions, as I didn't wish to be forced to kill would-be assassins every other day, and he accepted my proposal of burying the hatchet.

Of course, I knew that many found honor useless in the shinobi world, so they wouldn't care about their Kage's orders and try to attack either way. I was prepared for that, to have people attempt to slit my throat, cut off my head, or just slip a kunai between my ribs. I'd beat them up, send them back home, no one important got hurt, and you'd eventually have to give up on your antics, or so I thought."

Then, Naruto's blank gaze moved towards the shinobi responsible for Hinata's injuries, causing the man to take half a step back, before he frowned.

"That was all well and good in my head, but then you had to go and do something very stupid."

As he said this, Naruto's sword finally completelly left the scabbard, revealing a 4 foot long, black blade, a red design along the edge in the shape of wave-live curves. Said waves connected to a red design of a chinese dragon wrapped around the 1 ½ foot handle, it's cloth and wrappings also colored in black. The sword's guard took the form of a five-point star, each of the points representing one of the elemental chakra natures, and it was ornamented with a strap connected to a fuuinjutsu tag at the end.

"You went after one of my precious people."

The enemies gulped, tightly gripping their weapons and other such tools, their gazes fixated completely on the blonde, though they'd be unable to look away even if they tried. Then, terrifying them further, Naruto _frowned_ , as he spoke.

"You hurt one of my precious people."

 _ **PAINFEARANGERDESPAIRAGONYMISERYSUFFERINGDEVASTATION**_

The people present in the clearing were all floored by the sheer amount of killing intent released towards the, including Roshi and Han. Within them, Son Goku and Kokuo were agitated, telling their partners to retreat at all costs from the source of this killing intent. Then, as fast as it came, the killing intent vanished, and Naruto spoke again, same emotionless tone filling the airwaves around them.

"Fortunately for you, my Hime managed to delay the lava with a **Kaiten** long enough for me to remove them from here, so I will not break my word about not killing all of you, and then obliterating your village." 

Seeing the sheer terror running through the minds of his enemies, Naruto's tone shifted to a frigid apathy, with trace amounts of psychopathy, as he finished his speech.

"But, I can make you wish you were dead instead."

It happened extremely fast. They all blinked, and then Minoru was already without both of his arms, the remaining flesh cauterized instantly as if he had been cut by a red-hot blade. As he opened his mouth to scream, Naruto took hold of the tip of his tongue and he _tugged_ on it.

Blood. Blood everywhere. On the ground, on the trees, some splashed on Naruto's pants. Once again, like his arms, what remained of Minoru's tongue was instantly cauterized.

The two Jinchuuriki managed to unfreeze, with Roshi shooting a gob of lava towards the blonde, while Han focused his chakra and converted it into steam, allowing himself to heat up to fight at full-speed from the start.

Naruto vanished in a flash of orange, reappearing with Minoru, his right leg nothing more than a red-hot bone, the remains of his flesh having fallen off as melted slag. Turning his eyes towards Roshi, Naruto spoke up.

"You should really consider your allies during battle. Death by Lava is actually very worse than it sounds."

Kurotsuchi regained her wits about her, flying through handsings before slamming her hands into the ground, a spear of rock flying towards Naruto alongside a steaming Han.

The blonde tossed Minoru's body towards Roshi, forcing the 4-tails Jinchuuriki to interrupt the lava jutsu he was preparing, before a careless flick of his sword had shredded the rock spear.

Han reached Naruto, his fist outstretched and carrying the momentum of his run, and everybody in the clearing was surprised when said punch was blocked with the flat of Naruto's sword, a massive shockwave blowing out around them, with the non-enhanced blade suffering not one chip, or crack. Han reared back for another fast punch, which Naruto blocked by lazily moving his sword a bit, once again stopping the fist completely with the flat of the blade.

After checking on Minoru, and ensuring that he wouldn't die, Roshi handed him over to the rest of the Jonin platoon, before turning to adress Kurotsuchi as Han engaged the blond Namikaze.

"Kurotsuchi, leave. This fight just went beyond your caliber by a large margin."

Kurotsuchi, inheriting the stubborness of her grandfather, opened her mouth to protest, only to be surprised by the usually calm Roshi shouting, actually _shouting_ , at her.

"LEAVE! IF YOU STAY HERE, YOU'LL ONLY DISTRACT US!"

Sparing a look towards the actual zone of battle, Kurotsuchi couldn't help the widening of her eyes in horrified amazement as she watched the blonde effortlessly batting away all of Han's punches, the knowledge that the man could casually break stone with lighter punches than those shaking her up more than anything else. Gulping once again, Kurotsuchi nodded towards Roshi, before dashing away.

Roshi then refocused on the battle between the other two Jinchuuriki with a frown. From their first clash, the boy seemed to be able to keep pace with them, just barely edging both of them out at the same time, despite the fact that they were continuously speeding up. Seeing the casual ease with which he toyed with Han, not even bothering to dodge the strongest blows the man could toss around in this state, caused Roshi to nod to himself as he made a decision.

If he and Han were going down, they'd be taking the boy with them. They had nothing personal against the boy, but allowing someone this powerful to turn their sights on their village... It just wasn't an option.

Settling on a course of action, Roshi summoned forth his partner's chakra, the suffocating feeling of Bijuu chakra flooding the clearing causing Han and Naruto to stop their exchange for a second, allowint Han to retreat to his side. Naruto tilted his head curiously, watching as the red chakra cloaks covered both men, one tail sprouting up after another.

When the fourth tail emerged for both, an explosion of chakra created a massive red pillar of energy above each men.

When the pillars of Chakra subsided, Naruto found himself facing a pair of animallistic _things_ , their skin completely gone in favor of blood-red chakra patterned in a facsmile of fur. Their faces had changed, with Roshi's jaw widening, a pair of large, dagger-like teeth jutting up over his upper lip, his brows jutting out like a gorilla's, his lower body reducing in size and increasing in density, while his upper body bulked up tremendously, his shoulders broadening and his arms lengthening, the muscles on both quadrupling in size at the least. He balaned himself on his hands' closed fists. His four tails were stretched on the ground, occasionally rising and slamming on the ground, leaving cracks on it.

Han, on the other hand, had his neck lengthen like a horse's, while his head and face rounded like a dolphin's. His body, too, lengthened, widening at the middle, even as he adopted a quadruped stance. His arms and legs were replaced by thick, equine ones, with hoof-like protrusions there. On his head there was a blowhole, placing right in the middle of various sharp horns. Five chakra tails waved around behind him, occasionally sliding across the ground and leaving chakra burns.

The two transformed Jinchuuriki roared at once, a wave of pressure whipping around the clearing and shaking Naruto's clothes.

The two version 2 Jinchuuriki shot off towards Naruto, nothing more than two blurs of motion that would've usually disoriented anyone else.

Naruto jumped up, avoiding Han's horned charge, before he crossed his arms in front of him, keeping his grip tight around the handle of the sword in order not to lose it, before Roshi's large, meaty fist slammed into his guard, tossing him back and causing him to blast through some trees, before he righted himself middair and landed on his feet, sending chakra to his feet to try to slow himself down. He slammed his foot down on the ground, creating an extremely thick earth wall in front of him, before looking down at his all-but-decimated left arm, it's reddened, torn up form hanging limply from the shoulder socket.

Naruto pushed chakra into the arm, using Kabuto's regeneration jutsu, acting as if he hadn't even registered the pain, before a loud *THUMP* sounded from the wall in front of him.

In an instant, Naruto jumped away right before the wall exploded into shrapnel. Keeping track of his oponents through the smoke due to his sensory abilities, Naruto knew to lean his head back, avoiding a punch from Version 2 Roshi that would've probably decapitated him.

Deciding to go on the offensive, Naruto vanished in a blur of speed, appearing in front of Version 2 Han and jabbing the Kashira, the ending cap of the handle, into his forehead.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

Kurotsuchi was hunched over, her hands on her knees and taking deep breaths. Next to her, Jirogane Amango was tending to Minoru with the best of his first-aid skills, while the others tried to recover from first having their Tenketsu forcibly closed, then having to run like bats from hell when the blonde Namikaze appeared.

Her emotions were all over the place right now. The yellow flash's son... The amount of sheer killing intent he put out was unreal, as was the ease with which he destroyed the career of one of the people assigned to her current squad, actions which coincided with the demonic, dehumanized view that Iwa, for the most part, held of the Namikaze blood.

However, the fact that those actions were in response to one of his own getting almost killed showed that he had emotions, and the fact that he kept his word on not killing any of them, despite how absolutely livid he had to have been, even while her entire squad, Roshi and Han included, had frozen on the face of his killing intent... It showed a level of mercy that others in his position wouldn't have.

Hell, anyone else in his position, with how strong he was, and how much international support he had gathered, would've simply annihilated them, before opening a campaign against her village.

All of those thoughts were moving through her mind at ludicrous speeds, even as both the first look of sheer despair, and the terrifying lack of emotion kept moving through her mind's eye.

* **BOOOOOOOOOOM! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!** *

The sound of a massive shockwave, followed by the devastation of various trees had everyone glad they bowed out when they could. That wasn't the level of shit they were capable of.

On this day, Kurotsuchi learnt that there was a whole level of power, outside of the reach of 'mere mortals'.

 _ **-Naruto vs Version 2 Roshi and Han-**_

The only reason that Han did not lose his head to Naruto's blow was because his body was now pretty much bijuu chakra. When he got struck, his head snapped back so hard that his neck stretched and bent, causing his head to touch the base of his spine, before snapping back into place.

As Naruto prepared another blow to strike Han with, a glob of Lava flew towards the blonde, forcing him to Hiraishin out of the way, appearing behind the Ape Jinchuuriki and snapping a hard kick into his back, a kick which would've crushed almost anyone else's spine into less than dust, causing him to slam into the ground, next to Han.

The two Jinchuuriki looked at eachother before sharing nods, then turned back towards Naruto. Their tails moved upwards and curled up around their faces, their mouths gaping wide as purple, clear and black particles coalesced into the form of a small sphere in front of each Jinchuuriki's face. Almost as if practiced by them, both Jinchuuriki swallowed the condensed orbs, before aiming their faces at Naruto.

Expecting a high level attack, Naruto nicking his thumb before dragging his finger along the side of his blade, the red wave-like pattern lighting up like neon lights, all the way to the head of the dragon. Chains of fuuinjutsu revealed themselves on his blade as he started a chant, his hair whipping about on a nonexistant wind.

" **The path that leads me to where I have to be, the maul of steel into flesh which leads to an everchanging field. To uphold my promises, and protect which I cherish; To break free of the shackles of fate and carve my own way; The bodies of my enemies are my canvas...** "

The stomachs of the two version 2 jinchuuriki bulged tremendously, making it seem as if they would actually burst, steam escaping the corners of their mouths as they properly concentrated the energy to use.

" **Rule over what you gaze upon, Nàdar** (Nature) **!** "

An explosion of power occured around Naruto, right before Han and Roshi released their blasts of extremely dense chakra. One individual blast would sear through most things, but two together should have disintegrated any normal person.

Naruto didn't do normal.

He reared his arm back, before flicking his wrist, his blade making an arc towards the blasts dashing towards him.

As the blasts neared Naruto, they seemed to simply be cut in half, before they vanished completely, causing Han and Roshi to startle, before jumping backwards.

Naruto looked down at his sword, not having previously accessed this power. The words had just filled his mind, and he instinctually called them out. Thinking about the sword reminded him of a legend Yamamoto had told him.

 _ **-Flashback, during time compression-**_

 _"This sword of yours, Naruto... Where did you find it?"_

 _Naruto looked away from the training dummy which he had been glaring at previously, relaxing his stance and loosening his shoulders. Bringing the blade up to his eye level, Naruto examined the sharp edge before speaking._

 _"It was crafted for me. I met an old craftsman during one of my excursions, before I got the headband. He made these amazingly beautiful masks and I just couldn't ignore it. I looked through the masks he had available, and this fox mask just called out to me. I picked it up and when I asked for the price, he looked at me and told me that it was mine to take, so I didn't have to pay. I told him that I couldn't just take such a marvelous piece of craftsmanship for free, since it wouldn't feel right._

 _He asked me for 1,500,000 Ryo, and I was about to flip shit, when he told me that it was the price to comission one of his swords, and that I could take the mask for free as part of a bundle. I already wanted to be a swordsman by then, both because of my mother's skill and reputation, and my Uzumaki blood I guess. Seeing the old man's ability with masks, I took a gamble. Worst case scenario, I'd throw away some spare change."_

 _Yamamoto choked lightly at the spare change comment, but Naruto didn't notice, immersed in his memories._

 _"He took me to his forge, and showed me a bunch of metal ingots. Told me to touch each of them and try to send some chakra into it, and to tell him which one took my chakra the easiest. I got a black ingot, he called it Carbyde. He put it in a fire, and then drew blood from me and stored it in a jar. After the carbyde was good and hot, he started hammering away at it, occasionally telling me to push chakra into it. Whenever I wasn't pushing chakra into the ingot he was shaping, I was pushing it into either the blood, or the water he would be using to cool the metal._

 _After that, he sent me out of his work area and went back to work. 7 hours later, he called me back in, and showed me this blade. He said that it was a special one, and when I asked for it's name, he told me that I would have to find that out myself. When I asked him about the blood, he said that he used it to draw some seals and to do some special things to the sword, which ended up with the waves and dragon. Told me that it was one of his best works to date, and asked me to take proper care of his daughter. He was a weird old man, but he did some good work. I still keep the mask safe until needed, and this sword has never failed me when I needed it."_

 _Yamamoto nodded lightly at that, before speaking up._

 _"I see. And what have you called it?"_

 _"I didn't call it anything. I don't know why, but something tells me not to give it a name. Instinct, perhaps."_

 _After letting out an affirmative hum, Yamamoto sat down on the ground, eyeing his own sword knowingly, before speaking up._

 _"You know, that reminds me of the tale of a man named Muramasa. He was considered the best swordsmith in history. Well, he's called a swordsmith, but he worked on armor, shields, spears, naginata and various other tools. He's simply said to favor swords heavily, and it's said that all of his best works were the bladed ones._

 _It's said that the reason he was the best at working metals is because he had the ability to_ hear _it's_ 'voice' _. The metals themselves were said to tell him when to heat them up, when they were ready to be worked on, where, when, how and how hard to hammer, when to cool it, and by following these instructions he crafted swords that were borderline alive._

 _One day, a shinobi friend of his asked him to repair his weapon. It had been damaged during conflict with another user of a Muramasa sword. His enemy had chanelled chakra through the sword, increasing it's power temporarily, but ending up with steel dust as the blade was not made, nor meant, to take chakra._

 _As Muramasa worked on the repairs, he heard the voice of the steel telling him of the bond he held with his friend. That it was considered not a tool, or a weapon, but a trusted friend and companion. It asked for his friend to share some of his energy with it, and Muramasa responded by having his friend channel his chakra into the sword as he repaired it. By the end of his repairs, the blade was as good as new, if not better, and it created an actual sense of companionship with it's master._

 _It was the first semi-sentient sword ever._

 _Eventually, legends of these types of weapons emerged. People were clamoring for them, offering Muramasa power, money, status, and whatever they could to get one of these weapons that guaranteed victory over their enemies. Muramasa refused, and in order to spare himself the trouble, packed up his belongings and became a travelling merchant._

 _He travelled around the world, crafting the occasional sword for the few people he found worthy of it, people that had their names called by the metal. One day, he met a pair of siblings, a male and a female, both of red hair._

 _They were specialists with seals and blades, and the steel called for their names strongly. Except, the male sibling was dying. He had been attacked by a shinobi and was on his last legs. Muramasa, saddened, decided to craft a blade for the defense of his sister for free. As the sword was crafted, the brother's last act before he perished was to draw a set of seals on the unfinished sword, before stabbing himself through the heart. The seals drained his chakra fully, and created a wisp, a copy of a part of his mind, his being._

 _When finished, the blade bonded to the sister, and it happened right in time to fend off the pursuing forces. During battle, the sword happened to speak to the sister. It told her of it's name, and when she called it, a power beyond that of any swordsman responded. She annihilated her enemies completely._

 _After it was done, Muramasa told her of what had happened. She had the first fully sentient weapon, ever. It was the gift left to her by her brother, responding fully to her and her alone, bonding with her and growing stronger at the same rate as she did._

 _Muramasa asked the sister to detail and teach him the seals that had accomplished this deed, and after years of learning, he mastered the process. It's said that he rarely crafted fully sentient swords, as they required absurd amounts of chakra and willpower to be brought into being, as it copied a facet of your spirit and said facet was required to survive and thrive, and not just anyone was worthy of such a blade. He gifted one to the third head of the Uzumaki clan, Uzumaki Kenshin, one to the fifth head of the Uzumaki clan, Uzumaki Kan'ei, and one for each of his children, Uzumaki Mira and Uzumaki Hano. Most people believe that the 7 legendary swords of Kiri to be masterpieces of Muramasa, but most of them are the unfinished versions of them, outfitted with seals, but only partially sentient._

 _The only finished work was said to be samehada, which was crafted to also be incomplete, but ended up being knocked into the sea. It is said that a starving shark ended up dying either near the blade, or due to it, and it's spirit clung to it, prompting it to hunger. Because of the nature of the blade itself, and the seals used on it, it's ravenous appetite was for chakra._

 _That is the legend of Masamune."_

 _Naruto blinked at that, before speaking up._

 _"You think that my sword is a Masamune work, right?"_

 _"It is a solid theory. From the base crafting method, to the blade itself needing to tell you it's name, it's probably a fully sentient blade."_

 _"Fully sentient, partially sentient, that doesn't really matter right now. All that matters is that it hasn't failed me, ever. I trust my well-being to this blade, as it trusts me with it's repairs."_

 _Yamamoto eyed Naruto seriously, before speaking up._

 _"Naruto, when your sword tries speaking to you, listen to it. You won't regret it."_

 _ **-End Flashback-**_

"So this is what the old man was talking about..." - Naruto mumbled lowly as he watched the changed sword. The black wrappings around the handle changed into a pattern of scales, the five-pointed star of the guard changed slightly, replaced by five draconic-looking wings, each of them sporting a color. One of them was red, the one just next to it was green, after that it was yellow, after yellow was brown, and after brown was blue.

The black blade widened and thickened some, it's size increasing to 6 feet, the previous red wave pattern on the blade having been completely blacked out, with the occasional pulse of color similar to each of the wings of the guard, with different patterns symbolizing each of the elements, leading, still, to the head of a chinese dragon. Said chinese dragon now had it's jaw poised for a wicked bite, it's eyes gleaming with energy, it's fangs sharp, and it's jaws strong.

' _Indeed, Naruto-sama._ ' chimed a soft, melodious female voice ' _My name is, as you might have surmised, Nàdar. I embody your adaptability and fortitude similar to that of the earth and it's elements: they will always exist, in one way or another, and will do as they wish to, not caring about the commands or delusions of others.'_

'Pretty interesting, Nàdar. Is there anything special you can do?'

' _There is much within my abilities, but please focus on your current battle, Naruto-sama. I'd prefer teaching a master that was actually alive._ '

Refocusing on the fight, Naruto saw Han and Roshi jump back quite a few hundred feet, before they started concentrating their chakra.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

Onoki could feel the thick, menacing chakra characteristic to Bijuu , which meant that 1- he was close to his goal; and 2- things had devolved beyond what he hoped they would.

The old man once again put in as much chakra as he could into his flight technique, speeding up towards the battlefield, praying for the safety of his granddaughter, and his country.

 _ **-Back to the fight-**_

Roshi and Han, noticing that they would be unable to defeat Naruto at the current level, did something very irresponsible, and very stupid.

They summoned as much chakra from their partners as they could, once again covering themselves in a nimbus of red light, but this time, the glow kept getting brighter, and the chakra thicker...

After what were a few minutes of swirling, raging chakra, a pair of explosions flooded the surrounded area with a massive amount of killing intent, the slowly dispersing clouds of smoke and particles of chakra flowed away, revealing what lied underneath.

 **Son Goku** , the 4 tailed ape, and **Kokuo** , the 5-tailed Dolphin-Horse, in their complete and total physical glory.

 _ **-TBC-**_

 _ **Dun. Dun! DUN!**_

 _ **Hory shet! What's going on here? Where is everyone? What happened?**_

 _ **I can't answer any of that yet, but I will, eventually. If you want me to, of course.**_

 _ **As always, thanks for reading my story, Please leave a review, follow or favorite, if you enjoy the story. FrancoGamerxz, Out!**_


	37. Swords, Monsters and Resolutions

**Disclaimer: Not mine!**

 **Please read the Author Notes at the end of the chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

 _ **Last time on Uzumaki Chronicles:**_

 _Yamamoto eyed Naruto seriously, before speaking up._

 _"Naruto, when your sword tries speaking to you, listen to it. You won't regret it."_

 _ **~Noodlelydoo~**_

 _'Indeed, Naruto-sama.' chimed a soft, melodious female voice 'My name is, as you might have surmised, Nàdar. I embody your adaptability and fortitude similar to that of the earth and it's elements: they will always exist, in one way or another, and will do as they wish to, not caring about the commands or delusions of others.'_

 _'Pretty interesting, Nàdar. Is there anything special you can do?'_

 _'There is much within my abilities, but please focus on your current battle, Naruto-sama. I'd prefer teaching a master that was actually alive.'_

 _Refocusing on the fight, Naruto saw Han and Roshi jump back quite a few hundred feet, before they started concentrating their chakra._

 _ **~Noodlelydoo~**_

 _They summoned as much chakra from their partners as they could, once again covering themselves in a nimbus of red light, but this time, the glow kept getting brighter, and the chakra thicker..._

 _After what were a few minutes of swirling, raging chakra, a pair of explosions flooded the surrounded area with a massive amount of killing intent, the slowly dispersing clouds of smoke and particles of chakra flowed away, revealing what lied underneath._

 _Son Goku, the 4 tailed ape, and Kokuo, the 5-tailed Dolphin-Horse, in their complete and total physical glory._

 _ **~Noodlelydoo~**_

 _"Kakashi-kun, I'm pregnant!"_

 _"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

 _ **~Back to your previously scheduled program~**_

 _ **-Naruto vs Roshi and Han-**_

Bijuu. Beings of great power, made of chakra and given sentience. A swing of their tail change the landscape, and a mere glare could stop a man's heart, as far as legend goes.

Most men would shudder at the thought of being in the presence of a bijuu. Many more would shit themselves in the actual presence of one. In the presence of two? They'd abandon all hope.

Naruto wasn't most men.

The blonde calmly eyed the full-powered form of the two bijuu as they roared, the shockwave released raising a cloud of dust, crushing trees, devastating the area around them, yet he stood unshaken.

Raising an eyebrow at the menacing looking giants in front of him, Naruto turned into a blur, right before a pillar of lava shot up from under his previous position.

Son Goku, the four-tailed ape, repeatedly smacked his knuckles onto the ground, causing the earth to heat up extremely, before the pillars of molten rock erupted, covering the area in molten slag as he attempted to eliminate the blonde menace, yet Naruto seemed to always be a step ahead, moving into a free zone.

Kokuo, the five-tailed dolphin-horse decided to enter the fray, to aid in the destruction of the child that so humiliated their jinchuuriki.

For what is the survival of a 14 year old against two veterans, but humiliation?

Opening it's mouth extremely wide, Kokuo breathed out a massive cloud of steam, completely obscuring the clearing around Naruto, the chakra-laced nature of the steam impairing any sensory abilities the boy could have.

' _Blocking my chakra sensory abilities like this in order to impair my perception... Smart._ ' Naruto thought from his spot in the steam, before feeling the ground lightly vibrating under his feet, jumping backwards and out of the way of another pillar of fiery, molten death. He pulsed his chakra, creating a small area around him void of steam, before straining his ears to keep track of the enemy. His eyes widened as he hear a crackling, whistling sound.

The clearing was suddenly assaulted by a large explosion, a result of the tactics of the two Iwa Jinchuuriki.

Noticing that their target seemed to resist extermination with a dogged determination ( _He actually seemed to be taking it pretty easily, but their pride wouldn't accept that_ ) , Han and Roshi decided to use a combination attacks of theirs. As soon as Han blocked their enemy's senses with his steam, Roshi spat a grouping of boiling balls of rock, lava falling from their center through the few cracks in them, upwards and at an angle. After that, he would return to his lava pillars, aiming them by sensing the vibrations of the enemy's feet landing on the ground, which Roshi presumed to also be how the Uzumaki was predicting the pillars of lava.

But that wasn't the important part, no! While it would be a very pleasant surprise for Roshi, the lava pillar's main task wasn't to finish off the enemy. It was to lead them around, forcing them to settle in a specific area...

" **Lava Style: Falling Death!** "

 ***BOOOOOOOOOM***

Before the previously spat-out flaming projectiles fell directly on said spot, obliterating their opposition.

Looking away from the cloud of dust and smoke, Han and Roshi, still at full power, traded nods, confirming the death of their target...

"Mhm, that was a good one."

...Until said target spoke up from inside the rapidly-dissipating, obstructive cloud, his tone as calm and even as always. As the two Jinchuuriki/Bijuu turned back towards the source of the voice, they saw the blonde dusting off his cloak, the outline of a black-gray, ethereal ribcage dissipating from around his torso.

The 4 individuals, Son Goku, Roshi, Han and Kokuo, could only watch flabbergasted as the blonde seemed to not care a whiff about the damage dealt. They should've been able to easily destroy a country with that combo!

Then, Naruto looked up.

' _ **Roshi/Han, bijuudama at full power.**_ ' were the grave shared thoughts of the 4 and 5 tailed Bijuu. Why? Because they had just seen Naruto's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. They knew what those eyes were capable of, what the ribcage outline meant, what the boy meant when he didn't outright try to hypnotize or pacify them with those eyes from the start.

The boy was showing them how strong he was. How outmatched the two Iwa nin actually were.

Well, Song Goku wasn't going to take that lying down, and Kokuo, despite not being a hotheaded individual by nature, still had his own pride, and allowing that child to trample on it was not an option!

The two full-power jinchuuriki looked upwards once again, their tails curling around their faces as purple, black and clear particles coalesced on top of their faces at a rate previously unseen.

A pair of massive spheres of chakra were on top of the clearing, blocking the sun out for kilometers, the sheer amount of power exuding from them instantly scrorching grass, and melting rock.

 _ **-With Onoki-**_

' _Mother of god... The boy was stong enough to force Han and Roshi to go this far! I need to get there soon!_ '

 _ **-With Anko and Hinata-**_

Anko stiffened at the feeling of malice and power exuding from where she believed Naruto had removed them from, worry flashing across her face as she understood what her blondie-kun had to fight agains.

Hinata, even while unconscious, could only let out a shudder at the feeling.

 _ **-Back at the fight-**_

' _Kei, Kiyomi, Sync with me._ '

There were no questions asked. The two vixens, trusting _their_ Naruto, simply pushed their power through their connected seal, mixing the two halves into the more potent chakra of the original Kurama, covering Naruto in a nimbus of orange.

As the chakra cloud around Naruto dispersed, the only things indicating his use of the Bijuu chakra were the fact that his pupil had thinned and lengthened into a slit, fusing into the pattern of his Mangekyo, and that his whiskers had thickened tremendously.

The remaining amount of power seemed to be focusing around his swo- _Nàdar_ 's guard, causing each of the colored wings to light up even as he sheathed her.

As Han and Roshi kept building up power, Naruto shifted into a semi-crouched stance, his left foot forward and his right one back, his torso lightly leaning forward. He flipped his sheathed blade, putting the cutting edge upwards and forcing him to draw in a downwards motion, instead of the common upwards one.

Chakra started pulsating from the sheathed blade, with Naruto narrowing his focus as time passed.

The world around him dimmed, before disappearing into darkness altogether with the exception of the forming spheres across from him and the glow from Nàdar, all sounds vanished with the exception of his beating heart and the blood through his veins, and rushing in his ears.

Naruto allowed his focus to sharpen, and be reflected by the edge of his sword. He felt Nàdar speaking to him, her previously soft, melodic tone now backed by an undertone of overwhelming strength.

' _ **Sharpen your focus further, Naruto-sama. The sharper your focus, the sharper your cut.**_ '

The blonde didn't respond to the blade, not out of disrespect or disregard, but for the sheer fact that he couldn't focus on anything other than this one cut.

" **BIJUUDAMA!** " Came the simultaneous cry from the two fully-transformed Jinchuuriki, right before the two dark spheres streaked towards their target, disintegrating the ground under them and warping the air rushing around them out of sheer heat.

The they watched as the spheres crossed the distance towards their opponent, until their view of said enemy was obscured by the spheres.

' _It's too close, now. He won't have the time to counter them!_ ' were Roshi's thoughts, mimicked by Han. The two braced themselves, preparing for the expected shockwave and discharge from the chakra explosion...

 _ **-With Onoki-**_

Onoki could only watch in a combination of terror and awe as the flying orbs of death streaked towards the legacy of the yellow flash, the undisputed 'prince of Konoha'. His death would plunge the world into war once again, and with Kiri and Suna backing Konoha, alongside a few other countries like Spring, Waterfall and such, Onoki was certain that Iwa would not survive this one, if not by battle, then by economic sanctions and embargos.

Even knowing all of this, the old man could hold nothing less than respect for the blonde child. He pushed his two Jinchuuriki, the two strongest fighters in his village other than himself and Kitsuchi, to fight at full power, and use the trump card of the bijuu, and instead of crying or cowering in the face of death, the child stared it in the eye, his body still conveying the message of his willingness to fight it.

' _The undisputed best in his generation, being felled only by the combined might of two bijuu at full-power... What a kid- no, Man._ '

 _ **-With Naruto-**_

Naruto watched the spheres flying towards him, and the world started darkening further. The flying death slowed as his perception sped up, the entirety of his being, conscious and subconscious, focusing only on one thing.

' _Not yet..._ '

The spheres grew closer, seeming even larger than before.

' _Almost there..._ '

Naruto could feel the heat coming off of the condensed masses of chakra, blisters manifesting themselves on his skin, the shockwave ruffling his clothes and hair, the earth behind him glassing...

"NOW! **ELEMENTAL ROAR!** "

Until he found the right moment to draw. Like a master of the sword, Naruto's wrist flickered for an instant, the only evidence of his draw being the sound of his sword's guard clicking on the sheath...

And the massived arc of colored energy that flew towards the two Bijuudama.

Multicolored chakra bathed the clearing in a strobe of color and light, the relatively thin arc of visible energy increasing in size and speed as it went. The wind picked up around it, and soon it was roaring and howling loud, as loud as the trargets that the arc pursued. Soon enough, the attacks of either side intercepted eachother.

And it was Awe-inspiring.

The two spheres of condensed chakra from the Yonbi and the Gobi did their best to push against the attack, trying to bully their way past the blonde's attack. They tried their best to push simultaneously, to the point of creating rings of burning air abehind them, and to travel the last remaining meters to hit their intended target.

They failed.

Onoki, Roshi, Han, Son Goku and Kokuo could only watch in disbelief as the two spheres of condensed destruction were slowly pushed back, the arc of rainbow-like, strobing light managing to force them to reverse their paths slowly, growing in size and width.

And then it succeeded.

In an instant, though it felt more like an eternity to the observers, the arc of multicolored light and energy broke through the two Bijuudama, forcing them to expend so much power and energy fighting against it's own that they didn't have enough to even detonate, simply dispersing into nothing.

After that, there was only one thing left to do.

The arc leapt towards the two stunned bijuu/jinchuuriki combo, before a bight light engulfed the entirety of the clearing.

Flames raged, the wind howled, water rushed, earth roared and lightning crackled as the power of the cut was discharged.

Onoki was forced to clap his hands together, creating as many layers of rock between him and the explosion as he possibly could, and yet he still felt the sweltering heat trying to cook his skin.

Son Goku/Roshi and Kokuo/Han had it worse.

In an instant, their world turned first into light, before turning into pain.

Mind-numbing, all-encompassing pain the types of which none of them, bijuu and human alike, had previously felt.

Soon enough the explosion of light subsided, leaving behind a massive crater in what was once a mountain, scarring the environment for centuries to come. Inside the crater lied the battered and broken forms of the Yonbi and the Gobi, incapable of doing more than look up towards the one that had beaten them.

They could only watch as the blonde, his clothes torn and burnt in more than a few spots, his blistered skin bubbling and steaming as he regenerated, slid down the edge of the crater, slowly and calmly making his way towards them.

They saw him grip the handle of his blade, and they prepared to meet their afterlife as the warriors they were, looking him in the eye as he did the deed.

They saw the blonde turn into a blur, the sound of sharp metal sliding out of it's housing filling their ears...

Before a swordtip was pressed against the throat of Onoki, the Tsuchikage, who floated protectively in front of the two of them.

"We had an agreement, Onoki, and you broke it by sending them after me. I may have promised not to kill them, but I made no such promises regarding you, so you better have a very good explanation if you enjoy having your head attached to your neck."

The emotionless tone that the blonde spoke in had Onoki inwardly gulping, while his outward appearance remained unaffected. The old man looked Naruto in the eyes, surprising the blonde by knowingly exposing himself to his Sharingan, before speaking.

"It was not my order that caused this."

Roshi and Han were taken aback by this, asking themselves what play their leader was trying to make. Onoki, ignorant to their thoughts, continued.

"A, let us say traditionalist, member of my council went behind my back and organized this clusterfuck. I had explicitly ordered my shinobi to avoid conflict with you as much as possible."

Naruto tilted his head lightly, before responding.

"So your two jinchuuriki, your grandchild and a squad of jounin approach me, display a missive bearing the stamp of the Tsuchikage on it saying that I'm to be slain and attempt to kill me. After continuous attempts on the lives of my companions and my own, when I decide to fight seriously and manage to force your strongest people into submission, you just so happen to be around to keep me from killing your jinchuuriki. Then, you come to me with some story about a rogue agent orchestrating this attempt on my life, conveniently washing your hands of the issue. How... Convenient."

Onoki inwardly swore. He didn't even think about how all of this would sound out loud. The kid had all the right to be suspicious, and were it him, he'd probably think the same thing. The old man could do nothing more than meet the Uzumaki heir's gaze as the boy thought things through, no emotions even _attempting_ to leak into his body language, or scratch his blank mask.

A few seconds later, Naruto pulled his sword away from Onoki's throat, a glow passing through it as it reverted to it's previous appearance before being sheathed by Naruto.

"I believe you. Make sure nothing like this happens again, or else."

Onoki could only nod stiffly, before calling out "I understand."

The blonde turned his back on Onoki, blatantly disregarding him as a threat, causing the old Kage to seethe, and walked a few paces, before stopping at the edge of the crater.

"By the way..."

The blonde's deadly tone froze Onoki's blood, reminding him of the fact that he beat _two full-powered jinchuuriki_ , and that the boy actually _could_ afford to turn his back like that, not as a show of disrespect, but out of the knowledge of his own skills, causing his anger to die out as the blonde continued.

"I want the bastard that caused all of this. I want him sent to me alive."

"His actions were treasonous, and cannot be left unpunished."

Naruto looked back at Onoki over his shoulder, a placid smile appearing on his face that caused the man to shudder in sheer, abject terror, before speaking up in a friendly tone.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I will make sure to punish him properly. After all, his actions almost lead to the death of one of my queens. I will make sure to convey to him just how... _displeased_... That made me."

Onoki cringed alongside Roshi, Han, Son Goku and Kokuo, before giving another stiff nod.

"He shall be delivered to you."

Naruto nodded at that, his pleasant smile not leaving his face as he turned back to the edge of the crater and jumped out, taking a few steps before vanishing in a flash of orange light.

As soon as Naruto was gone, Onoki let out a breath he hadn't noticed he'd been holding, before turning to face the broken and battered forms of his two Jinchuuriki, now returned to their human appearance.

Feeling completely sapped of his strength due to his conversation with the blonde Uzumaki, Onoki couldn't do much more than touch Roshi and Han, tagging them with his flight jutsu before floating out of the crater with the two of them towards the remaining members of the hit squad set on the blonde.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

Anko, still cradling the head of the unconscious Hyuga girl, let out a breath of relief as soon as she saw a flash of orange in the edge of her vision. Said relief evaporated as she watched her blonde lover fall to his knees, his chest heaving and his entire form covered in sweat.

Before she could say a thing, Naruto raised one of his hands, before speaking between gasps.

"I'm okay... Just tired... Give me... a sec..."

5 minutes later, Naruto finally managed to get back to his feet, his chakra recovering gradually. He walked towards Anko and Hinata, each of his hands finding the cheek of either girl. He gave the unconscious Hinata a long look, before turning the same look to her, meeting her gaze.

Seemingly finding what he was searching for, Naruto pulled the purplette into a tight hug, before mumbling into her neck.

"Thank Kami the two of you are okay."

Despite anything else that happened on that shitty, shitty day, Anko couldn't really hold back the massive, heartfelt grin that blossomed on her face at hearing the sheer relief in the blonde's words.

And, just like that, the trio disappeared in a flash orange light.

 _ **~CHAPTER END~**_

 _ **Author Notes:**_

 **I finally,** _ **finally**_ **got around to updating. I managed to get the chance for the first time in a while, as I just had my final test today and entered my vacation, so I'll probably be capable of updating more often.**

 **Now, I'm not promising to going back to updating daily, as the bigger and more complex the story gets, the more effort and time it takes to keep crafting it, but I may have an occasional double, or even triple update in the same week, or maybe even in the same day if the inspiration hits me hard.**

 **Other than that, I can't really promise anything.**

 **Like always, please leave a follow and/or favorite if you enjoy the story, and leave a review with your thoughts on it. Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Is there something that I did right that I should keep doing, or something that I could improve at? You can leave any of those thoughts on the review page.**

 **Feel free to PM me if you have questions, suggestions and such, but please refrain from flames, as they will be thoroughly ignored.**

 **This is FrancoGamerxz, out!**


	38. Genin Test Again

**Disclaimer: Not mine!**

 _ **~Chapter, Start!~**_

 _ **-Hokage's Office, Konoha-**_

Tsunade, Hiruzen and the ANBU stationed in the room were surprised when a flash of orange deposited a shaken Anko, and unconscious Hinata and an uncharacteristically tired Naruto.

Before anyone else could say or do anything, Naruto lifted Hinata into a bridal carry before taking her towards Tsunade.

"Tsu-chan, please check on Hinata. I want to make sure that she's alright."

Hearing those words, Tsunade became all business. She vacated the couch she was sitting on, allowing Hinata to be laid on it, before placing a pair of glowing hands on the girl's stomach. Everyone watched as the glowing hands travelled up and down the bluenette's body, before Tsunade pulled her hands away and turned to face Naruto.

"She's running a slight fever, and her body displays signs of chakra-based regeneration. There's a bit of chakra thicker than her own circulating through her pathways right now, and that's why she's still unconscious. Fortunately it isn't a drastic amount of chakra, and this chakra seems to have regenerative tendencies, so it won't hurt her. It will, however, stretch out her coils until it runs out, which will mess with her chakra control quite a bit."

Naruto let out a breath of relief at that, before turning towards the Third. His eyes widened as he remembered something, a twist of his wrist releasing a rolled-up scroll from a storage seal that he placed on the old man's desk.

"Mission successful, sir. Kumo seems willing to try and move past previous animosity, and negotiate a Non-agression pact. That scroll, I was told by the Raikage, bears their response to the scroll you sent, and revisions and counter-offers to some terms in the first missive."

Hiruzen cracked the scroll open, giving it a cursory read before rolling it back up and stowing it away in one of his drawers. He then eyed Naruto and Anko analytically, seeing their tense and tired postures.

"I do not believe a diplomatic mission would end up with your team in the state it currently is. Anything else to report?"

Naruto nodded tiredly at that.

"Yes, as we returned from Kumo we were intercepted by a squad of Iwa-nin. They had orders to kill me. Their squad was composed by a handful of jounin, including the Tsuchikage's granddaughter, and both of Iwa's jinchuuriki. Me and my team were keeping them at bay, until Hinata got hurt."

A glint of anger entered Hiruzen's gaze, his hands tightly gripping the desk.

"Please, continue."

Naruto nodded thankfully at that, before procceeding.

"I was engaging the two jinchuuriki, Anko was fighting Onoki's granddaughter, and Hinata was facing the group of jounin. She seemed to have them on the ropes, but one of them hit her at the cost of bursting his own previously-closed tenketsu, and it pushed her into the path of one of the Yonbi Jinchuuriki's attacks. Fortunately she managed to deflect enough damage to allow me to remove both her and Anko from battle. She had bad burns all over the right side of her body. I used everything I knew of **Iryojutsu** (Medical Jutsu) to heal and stabilize her."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, already picturing himself ramming Enma's adamantine staff form up Onoki's posterior, before Naruto took a deep breath, and kept speaking.

"I left Hinata with Anko, and then went back to re-engage."

Hiruzen released his desk from his grip, linking his fingers together before planting his elbows on the desk, covering his mouth with his hands as he spoke.

"I hope you have a good justification for putting yourself in that dangerous situation without backup. Prove to me that your appointment as a jounin was justifiable, and that you don't need to spend some time running ops with chunnin."

Naruto scowled at Hiruzen, before answering with a bit of acid in his tone.

"Don't call me stupid, old man. I would've extracted if it were possible, but with one of my teammates unconscious, the other one dead on her feet, and with the enemy being as good as they were, they'd no-doubt track us and manage to box us in. We would be forced to fight them, and fighting under those conditions would probably lead to at least one of us dying. Me engaging them was the best solution, as if I beat them, then I could gather my team and return, and if I didn't, then they'd have no reason to further pursue my teammates."

Hiruzen nodded at that, his anger and worry receding as he analyzed the blonde's words, reaching the same conclusions as him regarding the situation. Naruto motioned for Naruto to continue, which the blonde did.

"I re-engaged, and incapacitated one of the jounin in the group so effectively that the rest retreated, leaving behind only the two jinchuuriki, Lava-style Roshi, and Steam-train Han, to fight me."

Hiruzen nodded at the blonde's words, prompting him to continue.

"I fought them seriously, and they reciprocated. They were losing to me, so they summoned the power of their bijuu. I responded by doing the same, and once again I was hedging them out. They responded by pulling on the entirety of their bijuu's power, transforming into their full form before attacking again. I kept one step ahead of them at every moment, and they got frustrated enough to use their ultimate technique."

Everyone in the room had their focus on Naruto, hearing in awe the tale of how he fought two full-power jinchuuriki and survived. Even Anko was riveted, as she did not witness the actual fight, only a lightshow at a distance.

"I reciprocated with one of my strongest attacks that wouldn't completely annihilate the area all around us, me included, and I managed to beat them. That's when Onoki showed up."

Anko and the ANBU were shocked into a stunned silence, Hiruzen gasped sharply and Tsunade let out a muffled curse, which Naruto ignored completely as he kept speaking.

"Onoki went there to interfere in the fight. The assassination order didn't come from him, but from a member of his government who wasn't afraid of the punishment given to one by using their Kage's stamp. He was being honest, so I allowed them to leave in exchange for having the bastard that caused all of this sent to me for some... _fun_. I returned to Anko and Hinata's position, and then I made the jump back here. I have to tell you, even with a beacon to lead me, making a jump from the edge of Kumo all the way to Konoha is goddamn tiring. I just want to take a hot shower, go to bed, and sleep until next week."

Everybody in the room was left in a shocked silence. A blonde 14 year old beat two full-powered, war-veteran jinchuuriki, faced off with the Tsuchikage and forced him to make a concession, and then still had the chakra to teleport his team entire countries of distance.

Hiruzen mumbled an absent-minded "Dismissed" to the two standing in front of him, his mind running so fast that he didn't even notice when the blonde teleported away with his squadmates.

Snapping out of his daze, Hiruzen opened one of his desk's drawers, getting a blank scroll and his stationary, before he started drafting an official letter.

"Hiruzen-sensei" Tsunade spoke up "What are we going to do about this attack on a Leaf shinobi?"

Hiruzen kept applying his elaborate brushstrokes on the rice paper, letting silence pervade the room for a while. He finished writing his message, putting the scroll aside to allow the ink to dry, before adressing Tsunade.

"You and a squad of shinobi are going to be sent to Iwa with this missive for the Tsuchikage. Naruto might have let them go as is, but I am going to get reparations for him regardless. Allowing an attack like that to be ignored so easily is inviting more trouble in the long run."

Tsunade nodded at that, before speaking up.

"You _do_ know that he'll want to come as well, right?"

Hiruzen shot Tsunade a particularly devious grin, before answering.

"I intended to send him anyway. Imagine how much Iwa is going to panic in the presence of the son of the yellow flash, who just so happened to singlehandedly beat the crap out of their two bijuu containers."

Tsunade smirked at that.

"I thought Naruto was supposed to be the prankster."

Hiruzen could only chuckle evilly, creeping out the ANBU stationed in the room.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU CLOWNS THINKING!? I GAVE YOU, ALL OF YOU, VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING NAMIKAZE'S SON! AVOID AT ALL COSTS, THAT WAS WHAT I SAID! WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA TO CHASE HIM DOWN AS YOU DID!?"

The squadmembers winced and cringed as their leader, Onoki, raged and shouted at them. Kurotsuchi spoke up meekly.

"But, grandfather... We had an official missive..."

Onoki glared witheringly at his granddaughter, causing her to shrink back into herself, before squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of their nose in exasperation.

"So, let me get this straight. After I gave you lot a specific set of orders to follow, you recieve a missive saying the exact opposite. You don't think to ensure it was real, and that it came to me, you don't even bother trying to get more information on your assignment, you just take off like that. Let me ask you a question. You lot are jounin, correct?"

The squadmembers capable of such nodded slowly at that, with Onoki nodding alongside them.

"Yes, that's correct, you lot are jounin... And jounin are supposed to notice even the smallest details possible in every single situation, correct?"

Not waiting for an answer, Onoki kept speaking.

"Of course, that's expected of anyone bearing the rank. So I want you lot to give me a reason not to demote you back to genin and have you doing D-ranks for the rest of your lives, when you don't manage to notice that the missive bore the Tsuchikage's stamp during a time period where I was away from the village."

They all froze at that, paling tremendously.

Jori Nabe, one of the most Namikazephobic members of the squad, spoke up at that.

"But Tsuchikage-sama, isn't the fact that the Namikaze brat is dead more important?"

Onoki gave Nabe such a disgusted look that one would be forgiven to believe he was covered in shit, before speaking up.

"Who said anything about the Namikaze dying?"

Sharp gasps came from all the conscious squad members with the exception of Roshi and Han, who were still being floated by the Tsuchikage. Onoki lowered them into view for the rest of the group, before speaking up.

"You see the shape that Han and Roshi are in? They were beaten by the boy while fighting at full power."

Nabe whimpered, and the armless and tongueless Minoru voided his bowels. Kurotsuchi spoke up at that.

"That's impossible, no-one should be able to do something like this, much less a 14-year-old, right? Right? Plus, you were there! After fighting Roshi and Han, he had to be wiped out! You could've taken him down!"

Onoki shook his head at that, speaking in a grave tone.

"Wrong. The boy is strong. Monstrously so. After demolishing Roshi and Han, his chakra levels were still high enough to fight me. Had he not heard me out and decided to attack from the start, he probably could've slit my throat in an instant with the Hiraishin."

Listening to that, realization flooded Kurotsuchi's mind and her face twisted in horror. She breathed out a low " _Hiraishin_ ", before absentmindedly speaking out loud, loud enough for the people in the clearing to hear.

"He has the Hiraishin, but he didn't even use it during our fight... He could have killed all of us at any moment..."

Onoki interjected at that.

"And yet he didn't, preferring to instead demolish the overall second and third strongest in our village, at full power, at the same time. I see you realize now the amount of danger you lot were in the entire time. Now, enough talk. I'm sure that Hiruzen is going to craft something to slap us with sanctions and reparations, and I want to be well-rested when I have to deal with the clusterfucked you stirred."

It was a pensive, horrified and defeated squad that made their way back towards Iwa territory.

 _ **-Amegakure no Sato-**_

"..."

A man wearing an orange spiral mask looked out one of the windows of the tower he was in, watching the non-stop rain that fell as far as the eye could see. He shifted slightly, acknowledging the presence of the person that rose from the ground as if it were a liquid.

"We've just watched the most **interesting thing on the way here**."

The man under the mask, one Uchiha Obito, who was masquerading as Uchiha Madara, who was, in turn, masquerading as Tobi, responded.

"Zetsu..."

The white side of the plant-man huffed, before speaking up.

"Fine, take away all of my fun. It's not easy being stuck with this humorless guy, you know?"

The black side let out a heavy sigh, before speaking up himself.

" **Every day, you make me want to kill you more.** "

"Aww, love you too, partner!"

"ENOUGH!" Obito barked out at that, before calming back down and speaking in his usual tone "Now, what is this information you were about to give me?"

" **The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was sighted leaving Kumo, so we decided to keep an eye on him.** He's a pretty cool guy, that kid. I like him! **He seems to have the ability to detect us at close range, so we had to observe from at a distance.** Completely his fault, by the way. I suggested we go up and greet him."

Black Zetsu and Obito seemed content in ignoring white zetsu's words, as the black half continued his report.

" **A squad of Iwa-nin was sent to assassinate him, amongst their members the four and five tails jinchuuriki.** We weren't close enough to see much, but we saw enough to know that he totally kicked their asses! With a pretty lightshow to boot! **The Yonbi and Gobi were forced to fight at full power, and yet they were handily beaten, as far as we can surmise.** Blondie beat the crap out of them, like a redheaded stepchild!"

Obito let out a small 'hmm', considering Zetsu's words, before speaking up.

"This changes nothing. We'll keep collecting resources for these 2 years we have left, and then we'll start hunting after the bijuu. When it's time to collect the Kyuubi, if push comes to shove, all of us will fight him simultaneously. No matter how strong he is, he won't be able to survive something like that. Now go to Sasori and appraise the state of his spy network. We need the best contracts for the highest amounts of money."

Black Zetsu responded with a grunt even as the white one kept on chattering, before the two started sinking back into the ground.

Obito shifted his attention back to the cloudy sky, watching the rain fall.

 _ **-The following week, Konoha Academy-**_

"I'm proud of you, all of you, for achieving what you set out to do. You are now the protectors of our village, wear that headband with pride!"

Umino Iruka's gaze moved across the sea of faces of the year's crop of graduation students, pride in a job well done filling his chest. As his gaze fell on a brown-haired, rambunctious boy, he felt a few bittersweet memories emerging.

' _Konohamaru... He reminds me so much of Naruto that it's not even funny. Takes me back to those days..._ '

Shaking off the nostalgia, and reminiscing, Iruka cleared his throat and spoke up.

"The teams are as follows..."

After announcing the majority of the teams and their sensei, the rest of the class noticed that Sarutobi Konohamaru, Utatane Moegi and Mitokado Udon, alongside Hyuga Hanabi were not given a sensei. One of the children asked about it, prompting Iruka to respond.

"We had an odd number of students graduating this year, leaving Hanabi without a team to join. Arrangements shall be made later on, and it will probably culminate in her being added to one of the teams as a fourth member. About Moegi, Konohamaru and Udon's situation... Well, there were two jounin that personally requested to have them as a team. They couldn't reach an agreement, so they will be given a special test to determine which of the jounin will become their sensei."

The other students eyed them with wonder, amazement and, in some cases jealousy at being personally requested by two jounin.

"Hmmpf, they probably just want the fame that comes with teaching the grandchildren of Hokage-sama and the council of elders. If it were on a basis of skill and talent, i'd have more requests than them."

Konohamaru's head whipped around so fast that he should've gotten whiplash, settling on the dismissive visage of Hyuga Hanabi.

Everybody expected Konohamaru to complain, scream and shout at Hanabi, as was the norm whenever the Hyuga girl needled him, but they were surprised when a massive grin bloomed across Konohamaru's face, before he spoke up between chuckles.

"You're jealous!"

Hanabi blinked once, twice, before fighting down the blush and stammer that wished to emerge, answering in the same stuck-up, derisive tone.

"Why would I be jealous of you, monkey-boy?"

"Because regardless of how good you think you are, I was the one to get direct attention from jounin. And you'll be even more jealous when you hear about one of the jounin who requested to have me in their team."

The entire class's gaze changed to Hanabi, watching and waiting for the girl's response. They saw the minuscule twitch of her eyebrows, before she lifted her chin in the air haughtily, responding in the 'Hyuga are the best clan™' tone of voice.

"As I said, they are merely individuals who wish to exploit the only good thing about you, your connection to the Third Hokage-sama. They're probably low-end jounin wanting to make a name for themselves through you."

Everyone turned back towards Konohamaru, watching his expression. They saw the mischievous look in his eye being matched by the gleeful grin stretching across his face, before he dropped the bomb.

"I don't think Naruto-niichan needs to use this type of tactics for increased popularity."

The entire classroom gasped as one, before whispers started flowing around the room.

" _Did he say Naruto?_ "

" _Naruto, as in Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto-sama?_ "

" _He's so dreamy~_ "

" _He's really strong! I wanna be as strong as him!_ "

" _Isn't he Yondaime-sama's son?_ "

As gossip flowed through the classroom, Hanabi froze in her seat, flabbergasted.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, the strongest of his generation, hero of the Sound-Sand invasion, killer of Orochimaru, son of the yellow flash and heir of the Uzumaki clan directly requested to have Kono-baka and his friends as his team?

"I refuse to believe this!"

Everyone turned silent at Hanabi's veement declaration, Konohamaru's grin staying unfalteringly on his face, even as Hanabi continued.

"I refuse to believe that Uzumaki-sama chose _you_ as part of his genin squad instead of me! The fact that I'm the heiress of the Hyuga clan would bring him as much prestige as having the grandson of the Third! With those two things matching, there should be no way he'd miss having me as his student! I have the best grades, both in theory and practice! I'm the best in our graduation class, and one of the best in the Hyuga clan! I've even activated my Byakugan already, and have a solid grasp on the Jyuuken!"

Konohamaru shrugged at that, before answering nonchallantly.

"Doesn't really matter what you believe."

Before things could escalate further, a flash of orange deposited Uzumaki-fucking-Naruto himself in fron of the entire class.

Everything went quiet, before an explosion of noise met the class as all of the children tried to get Naruto's attention at once, with more than a few students fangirling on Naruto, boys included.

The blonde could only scratch the back of his head in confusion, before turning towards Iruka and shrugging. Having been stunned by witnessing the Hiraishin in person, Iruka finally managed to shake himself out of his daze before lightly pushing Naruto aside and clearing his throat, preparing to use one of his strongest techniques.

" **SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW, YOU BRATS!** "

The entire class organized itself and went silent at the application of the famed **Demon Head Jutsu** , eyes front and center and focused on Iruka, causing Naruto to sweatdrop heavily.

Iruka turned his gaze towards Naruto, adressing him.

"To what do we owe your presence today, Namikaze-sama?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched once, twice, three times, before the blonde grinned _much too sweetly_ at Iruka, before whispering to him.

"Iruka-sensei, if you ever pull a -sama on me again, I'll teach every single one of your classes _That_ jutsu."

Iruka paled at the threat, even as Naruto kept speaking.

"Now, if you don't want your students to see you jetting away via nosebleed, then remember to call me by my name. Naruto. Not Namikaze-sama, Uzumaki-sama, Uzumaki-Namikaze-sama, Naruto-sama, or anything like that. Na-ru-to. Are we understood, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka nodded rapidly at the threat, causing Naruto's smile to turn genuine, before he turned to adress the curious class.

"Well, I'm here to gather Mitokado Udon, Utatane Moegi and Sarutobi Konohamaru for a special test."

Hanabi slammed her hands on her desk, standing up and pointing at the grinning Konohamaru before speaking up.

"Namikaze-sama, why would you want _him_ as a student? I'm stronger, smarter and better behaved than him! He's just an idiot who spends his time clowning around and pulling pranks!"

Naruto turned to give the girl an appraising look, causing her to lose some of her conviction, and a blush to tint her cheeks by the intensity in his eyes, before Naruto spoke up.

"You're Hanabi, Hinata-chan's sister, right?"

Hanabi, surprised by the question, could only nod meekly, causing Naruto to chuckle lightly at that.

"Well, I don't know how much she told you about me, being her boyfriend and all-"

The entire class started vibrating with murmurs at that, until Naruto continued talking, causing them to grow silent and listen.

"-but I know Iruka-sensei can tell you this: I was worse. I was worse than Konohamaru during my academy years. I was always slacking off, getting bad grades, screaming and shouting, and pulling pranks. I was the dead last of my graduating class, and now I'm a jounin at 14.

What I mean to say is that you should underestimate no-one, and that you shouldn't always take things at face value. You should always try to look underneath the underneath, because you don't know who the next big name shinobi is going to be. Plus, it's very, _very_ bad to reach a conclusion based on flawed, uncorroborated data. You should inform yourself properly before creating an opinion on someone. This extends to all facets of your life. Seek as much information on whatever it is you intend to do before reaching a decision. It could just end up saving your life."

Iruka's eyebrow twitched as he watched the way the children in his class absorbed Naruto's words with full concentration and focus, the sort of thing he would love them to have during _his_ own classes.

Unknowing of his sensei's thoughts, Naruto continued speaking.

"Now that that's out of the way, I _really_ need Kono, Moe-chan and U-kun to follow me."

As the three kids made their way towards their idol, Hanabi spoke up.

"C-can I go too? To watch their test, I mean. Since I don't have a team, i have no reason to wait for a sensei, so it should be no problem, right?"

Hanabi had directed the last question at Iruka, but before the man could respond, Naruto spoke up.

"Sure, you're invited to come. No, wait. You know what? All of you kids are invited to come watch the test."

A massive amount of cheers erupted from the class, followed by the sound of stampeding children as they followed after Naruto, leaving Iruka in the classroom, alone and flabbergasted. He regained his bearings, yelping out a "Wait for me!" before following after them, truly curious about the test meant for Kohamaru, Moegi and Udon.

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

A large crowd had gathered around the training field in order to watch the proceeding test. After the entirety of Iruka's class traversed the academy grounds making as much noise as humanly possible, the other teachers and students inquired about the situation, ending up with the entirety of academy classes, instructors and even the headmaster going out to watch the test.

The large group travelling through the village, lead by ' _Namikaze-sama_ ', inevitably gathered the attention of more people. Civillians and shinobi alike, if they had no tasks to fullfil at the moment, and nothing better to do, joined the procession towards the field.

Now, a massive group was arrayed around the clearing, watching as Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon walked towards the center of the training field and the Third Hokage waiting there with Ebisu beside him. Naruto went to the other side of the Hokage, while Konohamaru and his friends arrayed themselves in front of the Hokage, standing at attention.

Hiruzen spoke up, causing the murmur amongst the people watching to die down.

"The three of you know why you are here, do you not? In case you don't, it is because there were requests by two jounin to become the leader of your genin cell. The two gave good arguments, but in the end, you'll be the ones deciding who is your sensei. Well, I say you, but I really mean your performance, as it is based on it that I shall assign you to one of the men beside me."

Giving them time to process this, Hiruzen kept speaking.

"Your test will be composed of two parts. First, it will be a tracking exercise. Two scrolls were hidden somewhere in the clearing, and you are tasked with finding them. They hold the clues to the second test. If you fail to find them, you fail the test automatically. Understood?"

The three children nodded seriously, before the Hokage, Naruto and Ebisu vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind a piece of paper with something written on it.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

The crowd around training field 13 had been redirected by a swarm of Naruto clones towards various areas with large screens displaying the test, with audio capable of picking up the words of the kids. Further Naruto clones walked around the various different areas, selling popcorn, cotton candy, drinks and snacks for the people.

One of the screens , however, had been set up at the Ichiraku ramen stand, bringing Teuchi and Ayame the most amount of business they'd had in a while.

The camera seemed to change angles intuitively, knowing when to keep all three kids in frame, when to go for an overhead, over-the-shoulder, perpendicular or any other type of viewing angle. It also occasionally split the image, focusing on different angles.

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

"I can't understand what's written here, it's a squiggly mess..."

Konohamaru scratched his head in confusion as he tried to understand the piece of paper, before shrugging and turning to his team.

"Any of you understand what's here?"

The other two leaned in, looking at the odd-looking squiggles, before Udon's eyes widened in recognition.

"I know what that is! That's a seal!"

The other two gave the paper a renewed look, before Konohamaru tilted the paper, and the two reached the same conclusion.

"It is, but it's a bit... slanted. Like it's been made by an amateur, that's why I couldn't make heads or tails of it."

Udon removed a bottle of chakra-conducive ink and a brush from his back pouch, organizing them on the ground before speaking up.

"Naruto-niichan was probably the one who made the seal. If he made it at professional-grade, I doubt even Jounin would be able to crack it. He made it deficient on purpose, probably mimicking the sealing technique of a genin-level individual."

Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon sat down in a circle, placing the piece of paper on the ground in the middle of them as they tried to analyze the seal.

Udon took a piece of paper of his own, placed it on the ground, before he started drawing squiggles on it in slow, deliberate strokes, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth in concentration.

"Wait, Udon, go back two characters and change that L-looking one into an S, with a diagonal bar in the middle."

Udon's eyes widened, before he re-drew that specific symbol.

"Also" Moegi spoke up "Bridge that twisty J and the Loopy C-like things together."

Udon followed the suggestion, before putting down the brush and allowing the ink to dry. As soon as it was dry, Konohamaru, being the team member with the highest chakra capacity, put his finger in the middle of the tag and pushed some into it, causing the kanji to glow a bright blue. They pushed their newly-made tag into the piece of paper Naruto left behind, causing a puff of smoke to deposit a rolled-up scroll, tied up with string. After doing their best to check on the scroll for traps, as it wasn't beyond Naruto to do so - an occasion with some maple syrup, flour and feathers coming to mind - they cut the string, and unrolled the scroll, reading the message within.

" **If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher**

 **If Earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body in the fields and prepare to attack**

 **When both Heaven and Earth are opened together, the path of peril will revert to the righteous path forever**

 **This 'Human' is the secret way... that guides us on from this place today** "

 _ **-Jounin Lounge-**_

Everyone in the lounge turned their gaze towards Naruto, who was watching his students with a smirk on his face. Gai was the one to speak up.

"That poem was made by the third and used during your chunin exams, was it not, Naruto-san?"

Naruto nodded towards Gai, prompting the spandex-clad man to speak up further.

"But I believed it only applied when you already possessed the scrolls? What are they to do without scrolls?"

Naruto smirked, before answering "They'll know what to do."

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

The three academy graduates seemed to be thinking deeply about the issue, before Moegi spoke up.

"This... Heaven and Earth, Wisdom and Knowledge, and Body... This is talking about chakra."

At Konohamaru and Udon's questioning looks, Moegi elaborated by drawing a circle on the dirt underneath them, before parting it with an S-like line, splitting the sphere in half similarly to the yin-yang symbol.

"Chakra is composed of two parts."

As she spoke, she started writing characters on one side of the split sphere.

"The spiritual component..."

Before writing characters on the other.

"And the physical one."

She then looked up towards the two boys who seemed to not have understood, sighing exasperatedly, before explaining further.

"The spiritual component stems from honing your mind and gaining experience, and the physical component stems from strengthening your body. Heaven is the spiritual component, Earth is the physical component. "

Seeing the two boys' looks of mounting realization, Moegi continued.

" 'When both Heaven and Earth are opened together, the path of peril will revert to the righteous path forever' When we put together the physical and spiritual energies, creating chakra, then our path forward will open.

'This 'Human' is the secret way... that guides us on from this place today'

Probably refers to some sort of guide that we're supposed to discover."

The two boys' eyes lit up in understanding, before Konohamaru tilted his head in confusion.

"Guys, does your chakra feel weird?"

Moegi and Udon looked towards Konohamaru, before closing their eyes and putting their hands together in a Ram sign. The two drew upon their chakra, before their eyes snapped open in surprise, with Udon speaking up.

"There're traces of foreign chakra in our bodies!"

Moegi raised an eyebrow and met Udon's gaze, before asking.

"Genjutsu?"

At Udon's shrug, Konohamaru spoke up.

"Well, flare your chakra guys. Then we'll know whether we're under genjutsu or not."

With a cry of " **KAI!** ", the three flared their chakra, causing the foreign chakra to leave their bodies. They heard what sounded like glass shattering coming from the scroll they read the poem in, and noticed that the text had changed.

" _**The Earth is underneath you, to be grasped with your own two arms**_

 _ **The Heaven is right above you, to be seeked out from both below and above**_

 _ **Find the two, and your path shall be illuminated**_

 _ **To the guard that holds the judgement**_ "

 _ **-Jounin Lounge-**_

Naruto enjoyed the incredulous and surprised looks that the other Jounin were sending towards the screen as they watched his cute little disciples' efforts.

Genma was the one to speak up first.

"Observant, those kids. Figured out the Third's riddle in a few minutes, and advanced through an altered interpretation. They even managed to detect a disturbance in their chakra caused by an external source, and break it. What the hell have you been teaching them?"

Naruto smirked smugly, before speaking up.

"Keep watching and find out."

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

"Earth is underneath us..."

With that absent-minded thought, Konohamaru pulled a Kunai out of his pocket, eyeing it contemplatively, as Moegi and Udon discussed what the solution could possibly be. Konohamaru kept looking at the Kunai from various different angles, twisting and twirling it, before speaking up.

"Guys... Do you remember what Naruto-niichan told us about the origins of the Kunai?"

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _"Well, my cute little disciples, since you managed to pester me enough to get a lesson out of me, I decided that today I'll be teaching you about weapons."_

 _The three kids were bouncing in their seats with energy, anticipating lessons in swordsmanship, or how to bounce kunai and shuriken off of eachother, or how to escape an enemy fortress with only a senbon and a piece of paper._

 _"We'll start with Kunai, and what better way to learn how to best optimize their use than by..."_

 _As the three kids leaned forward in anticipation, their eyes shining with excitment, Naruto finished happily._

 _"Learning their history!"_

 _The jaws of the kids hit the ground, forcing Naruto to focus as hard as possible to not burst out laughing, managing to curtail it into a small smirk. As Udon froze, and Moegi sputtered, Konohamaru spoke up._

 _"Naruto-niichan, we don't need to learn history! We need to learn how to use our weapons!"_

 _At that moment, Naruto turned absolutely serious, prompting the children to follow suit. Knowing that it was a serious moment, the three listened in rapt attention as Naruto spoke._

 _"You're wrong, Kono. In order to learn how to use your weapons, you need to learn their history. How were they crafted? Why? How were they first used, what is the optimal way to use them found commonly throughout it's history? What are the ways that it cannot be used as?_

 _For Example, look at the Kunai. Most people see Kunai as a disposable hunk of sharpened steel, good for throwing and forgetting, and occasionally for close quarters combat if you're not a taijutsu specialist and you've lost your main weapon, but they forget that they can be much more than that._

 _It can be used as an emergency medical tool, for things such as bloodletting to extract poisons, battlefield surgery to gouge out shrapnel and other projectiles from the body of a comrade, or to transplant organs._

 _In fact, the Kunai was first designed as a gardening tool by a noblewoman who enjoyed the activity very much. It allowed her to more easily dig the dirt while using less strength, root out plants and weeds, prune branches off of plants at easy access and so on and so forth._

 _One day, her home was sieged by a group of bandits, and her bodyguards dispatched. They intended to use her for ransom, so they left her in her garden, with her gardening tools, of which the Kunai was one._

 _Big mistake for the bandits._

 _Using the single nicked, scratched and mostly worn Kunai she had, she managed to escape from their clutches. She faked feeling faint and ill to lure the one watching her in, before slashing out his throat. She followed that up by sneaking out of her garden space and into the house. She propositioned two of the men, telling them to meet her in her bedroom. The first one was felled as he crossed the treshold of the door, as she waited while sticking to the wall and stabbed him on the back of the neck as he moved past her, before dragging him away._

 _After that, she placed herself on the bed and hid the Kunai under the pillow. As the second man she propositioned approached her and disrobed, she pulled her kunai on him and stabbed him in the heart._

 _She liberated the rest of her kunai and trapped the majority of the doors and windows of the home, before luring the remaining bandits in. As they entered the house and moved through the various rooms, more and more traps were sprung. Kunai hanging on top of the door falling directly into heads, some rigged to be shot with string, and one of them was even attached to a cupboard door that was attached to a tripwire, opening when the bandit stepped on it and slamming the kunai into his throat._

 _She eliminated the bandits, made her way to the tent of their leader and slit his throat as he slept, before stealing one of their horses and riding back towards her father's manor."_

 _The children were enthralled by the tale, with Moegi fangirling the hardest. After giving them a few minutes to get it out of their system, Naruto resumed._

 _"Remember children, a noblewoman with no combat training managed to fell a group of bandits using only a gardening tool, her wits and day-to-day objects. Your mind and your ability to impovise are improved overtime, but your knowledge of your tools can be taught directly._

 _Now, the Shuriken..."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"A gardening tool..." Moegi mumbled, before Konohamaru's eyes widened.

"Guys, the Earth means physical energy. Working your body. The Earth also means one of the things we have to find. 'The earth is underneath us', maybe that was meant literally."

Moegi spoke up next.

"You're saying that..."

And Udon finished the thought.

"We're supposed to dig it up from under us."

The three kids looked down, pulling out a kunai each before digging into the ground.

They suceeded in finding something after 15 minutes of harduous digging, being met with a metal box about as big as a mailbox. Pressing his finger on the lock, Konohamaru channeled some chakra to unlock it, revealing a brown scroll and three radio headsets.

 _ **-Ichiraku Ramen-**_

"Wow" Kiyomi said between chews of noodles, before swallowing and speaking with an empty mouth "Naru-koi's training a group of impressive kids, to manage to get this far off of the academy."

Kei swallowed her mouthful of Pork Ramen, before nodding and commenting.

"Yeah, they've the talent and the minds to be great. Under his Tutelage, they'll be amongst the best, no doubt about it."

 _ **-Hokage's office-**_

"Naru really taught them well, huh old timers?"

Tsunade's question got no response, as Hiruzen, Koharu and Homura were too busy gaping at the television screen in front of them to speak.

 _ **-Uzumaki Compound-**_

"Naru-chan really makes for a good teacher, wouldn't you say, Shige-chan?"

Yamamoto nodded at Hayato's assessment, before taking a sip of his hot tea.

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

"So, we've got an 'Earth', now we need to find a 'Heaven'."

Udon thought for a bit, thinking back on the second riddle before looking towards the communicators.

" 'The Heaven is right above you, to be seeked out from both below and above' ... Guys, I think I've figured out the Heaven."

When Moegi and Konohamaru turned their attention towards him, Udon elaborated.

"We need to seek the 'Heaven' out from above and below. The last sentence showed that the riddle was more literal than the first one, as in the earth was literally right underneath us. I think this one is literal as well. At least one of us has to climb high above us, while another one stays on the ground, and we need to coordinate our efforts to look together, that's why we got these communicators."

Konohamaru and Moegi nodded in agreement, before the three of them put the headset on.

"Well" Konohamaru started "I can climb to the tallest tree here in the field and look down to search for something, Udon, you search from below, Moegi, find a tree at about the midway point between me and udon, both in height and in distance, in case we miss something."

The other two nodded, before each of them went to fullfil their task.

Using treewalking, both Konohamaru and Moegi climbed up their respective trees, before activating the communicators.

"Little Monkey, in position."

"Redcheek, in position."

"Calculator, in position. Little Monkey, what do you see?"

Konohamaru looked around the branch he was in, before he felt a twitch on the back of his neck, like a sliver of chakra was extremely close. He turned around for a bit, feeling his way around the trunk and branches, until his finger glided over a groove in the wood, much too smooth to be natural.

He looked at it closer, examining it before calling out.

"I see... A seal. Something about Occlusion, hiding from sight or whatever."

Konohamaru pushed against the seal, before Moegi's voice sounded from the communicator.

"Kono, freeze as you are! Udon, another seal sprang up near you, I can see the glow from here."

Udon focused on trying to sense chakra, one of his admitedly weaker skills, before he finally managed to feel something. He moved towards the source, finding a glowing seal engraved on the ground. He crouched, looking closely at it before calling through the earpiece.

"This one reads 'Power', 'Distribute' and 'Regulate'. Can't understand any more than that."

Moegi felt another array lighting up near her, shuffling along the branch she was in until she got close enough to read it.

"Mine says area, zone, and close. I think we should destroy them all at the same time."

Konohamaru spoke up at that, taking control of the situation.

"Okay, since we don't know the maximum amount of chakra the seals can channel, and we don't know if we have enough to short them out that way, we'll have to physically strike them out. Ready your tools."

Each of the kids pulled a kunai from the holster, before positioning it near the seal.

"Steady your hands. Strike in 3, 2, 1..."

The three slashed the seals out simultaneously, destabilizing the entire array. They felt a burst of chakra moving through the training field, before a short pillar appeared beside Udon. The three kids convened around it, feeling around the pillar and finding a level which lowered a hidden panel, revealing a white and blue scroll with 'Heaven' written on it, and three soldier pills.

Storing the pills away since they didn't use much chakra, the kids moved away from the pillar and back to where they first dug into and found the earth scroll.

Moegi spoke up.

"Okay, now that we've got 'Heaven' and 'Earth', we need to mix them together to illuminate our path. We probably have to put them together. Unroll on three."

Udon and Konohamaru slid their fingers into the crease on the outward edge of the scroll, before Moegi started counting down.

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Go!"

The boys unrolled the scrolls, seeing what seemed to be halves of a sealing array. When each half started releasing smoke, they tossed the two towards the same area, causing them to cross together before a pillar of light emerged from it, followed by a cloud of smoke.

When the blinding light and the cloud of smoke subsided, everybody could see the figure of...

- _ **Jounin Lounge, Hokage's Office, Ichiraku Ramen and Hospital Maternity Ward-**_

"...Kakashi?"

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

"Cycloptic Pervert? What're you doing here?"

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched at that, before Moegi spoke up.

"Don't be an idiot, Kono! The Pervert Scarecrow is supposed to be the 'Human' key to this riddle, what we get from mixing 'Earth' and 'Heaven'."

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched further, but before he could say anything, Udon spoke up.

"Reading Perv is probably the one that will show us the real path from the dangerous one."

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched further, before he spoke up in his regular, lazy tone.

"Maa maa, where did you hear all of these names?"

The three kids answered simultaneously.

"Naruto-niichan/Naruto-Sensei/Naruto-sama."

Konohamaru rounded on Udon, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Oii, since when is it you call Niichan 'Naruto-sama'?"

Before rounding on Moegi.

"And you 'Naruto-sensei' ? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Moegi bopped Konohamaru on the top of his head, before answering.

"We're just showing Naruto-sensei some respect in front of his subordinates!"

*Twitch Twitch*

Kakashi fought to keep the eye twitching to a minimum, a vein throbbing on his forehead even as he kept his lazy tone.

"But what makes you say I am Naruto's subordinate?"

The three kids traded looks, before each of them answered in turn.

"He's stronger than you" came from Konohamaru.

"He's more handsome than you" came from a blushing Moegi.

"He's more influential and famous than you" finished Udon.

 _ **-Everywhere else-**_

Snickers and laughter followed these words, alongside words of agreement from various women towards the second point.

 _ **-Training Field 13-**_

TwitchTwitchTwitchTwitch

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched so hard you'd think it was having a seizure, before he clapped his hands together and spoke up, his lazy tone gaining an almost imperceptible edge to it.

"You know what, let's stop dilly-dallying and move on with the test. Long story short, I hold the key, you need to impress me, fight to kill, go!"

As soon as he said go, Kakashi felt the presence of the three kids vanishing altogether.

' _Well doesn't this bring back memories?... Dangerous, somewhat Ominous memories, but memories nonetheless. I can't find hide nor hair of the kids, and using the sharingan with them is a definite no-go._ '

Kakashi leaned to the side, watching as a Kunai sailed past where his head previously was, only to sink itself ring-deep into a tree, a thin line of blood opening on his cheek.

' _Academy students just get more dangerous every year._ '

Kakashi then had to jump back, before a pair of hands emerged from the ground under him. As Kakashi landed, he was forced to dodge more extremely accurate Kunai, all aimed at either lethal points ( _Liver, Spine, Heart, Jugular_ ), or debilitating ones ( _Elbows, Knees, and Kakashi Jr._ ), the last one just barely missing him and grazing his pants leg, causing him to shiver in abject terror.

When he focused back on the the hands emerged from, the area was already empty.

Kakashi looked around, trying to sense the presence of the not-quite-yet genin...

" **Katon: Goukkakyu no Jutsu!** (Fire Style: Gread Fireball Technique)"

A massive fireball, sporting 10 meters in diameter streaked towards Kakashi, turning to ash any blades of grass it touched.

' _Jesus, the flashbacks won't stop coming._ '

" **Suiton: Mizurappa!** (Water style: Water Trumpet)"

A cone of water emerged from Kakashi's masked mouth, impacting into the fireball and nullifying it, creating a cloud of vision-blocking steam in the process. Kakashi kept his ears open, trying to anticipate attacks...

" **Fuuton: Daitoppa!** (Wind style: Great Breakthrough!)"

Until a mass of concussive wind slammed into him, sending him flying until he managed to right himself middair.

' _Honestly for fuck's sake, this is chapter 3 all over again!_ '

Kakashi landed, sticking himself to the ground with chakra in order to halt his momentum, before he was forced to lean to the side to avoid the swing of an oversized Kunai, somewhere between a Tanto and a Wakizashi in size.

He was forced to duck to avoid a follow-up slash, before hopping away to avoid a downwards cut. Then, Kakashi turned around with his arms crossed for a block, anticipating Konohamaru's flying kick.

What he didn't anticipate, however, was a cloud of smoke depositing a **Kage Bunshin** in Konohamaru's path, acting as a platform for him to kick upwards from. In an instant, Konohamaru tossed his soldier pill into his mouth, refilling his almost-empty reserves before a cloud of smoke signaled another clone above him, which he kicked off from to gain speed as he flew towards Kakashi, going for a punch to the face. Kakashi grabbed him by the wrist, but Konohamaru surprised him once again by throwing his arm to the side, breaking Kakashi's guard, and slamming the top of his head into the Jonin's nose.

Kakashi retaliated by throwing the visibly winded boy away, before jumping back, watching as an assortment of Kunai and Shuriken struck the place he was standing at.

"Okay, that's it. I'm pissed, you pissed me off. Not going easy on you brats any longer."

Then, Kakashi vanished.

Moegi's eyes widened, before she rolled away from her spot, crouching in the bushes, watching as Kakashi's fist made a small crater on the ground she previously stood on. As Kakashi moved to punch her, he was surprised by Konohamaru placing himself in front of Moegi, his arms crossed in a block.

The Sarutobi was thrown upwards, his arms trembling and all but powerless now, while Moegi and Udon ran towards his landing zone.

Knowing that Kakashi would no longer allow them to hide and would actually pursue them seriously, the three defaulted to the instinct that Naruto drilled into them relentlessly:

Teamwork. If you can't do it alone, do it as a team.

Moegi slid her soldier pill into Konohamaru's mouth, allowing the boy to swallow it and regain the chakra he used when summoning the second **Kage Bunshin** , which he pushed towards his arms in order to stop the shaking and make them usable.

Udon crossed his arms together, a handful of Kunai sliding down his sleeves and placing themselves between his fingers.

Konohamaru shook his arms loose, before leaving his hands together, positioned for handsign weaving.

Moegi raised her oversized Kunai, gripping it with two hands and keeping it at her chest-level.

As the three prepared to attack again...

* **PLIM PLOM PLIM PLOM** *

A bell signaling the end of the exercise rung, causing Kakashi to force himself into a calm countenance.

The copy ninja pulled his copy of Icha Icha Violence from his back pouch, getting his twitching eyebrow into order before speaking up lazily.

"Well, you guys sucked so hard you didn't even manage to locate where the bells were on my person..."

The eyes of the three kids widened at that, they went straight for the fight instead of trying to locate the bells first! How could they make such a rookie mistake?

"...But, you impressed me enough during combat to make me give them to you. The catch? There's only one actual bell. Naruto's a busy person nowadays, and he has no time to take on a full squad, so he'll be taking a single disciple instead. You'll have to decide amongst yourselves who gets to become his disciple."

The three kids looked between eachother, their gazes meeting and a private conversation flowing between them. They seemed to reach an agreement, as Konohamaru stepped forward towards Kakashi...

Before kicking him in the nards.

Every single male watching the scene cringed at that. Konohamaru, uncaring of that, took back his spot in the middle of his friends, before speaking up.

"We're a team. We never abandon eachother, we never turn our backs on eachother. If Naruto-niichan can only take a single apprentice, then give Hanabi the spot. She's the one without a team. We'll train under another jounin, and see if Naruto-nii has the time to teach us occasionally."

Kakashi, his single visible eye wattering as he curled up on the ground clutching his junk, managed to squeak out a "You passed", before losing his consciousness, foam falling out the sides of his mask as his eye rolled back into his head.

The three kids exchanged looks, before shrugging and walking away from the Training Field, leaving Kakashi behind.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how Team Naruto came to exist.

 _ **~Chapter End~**_

 **Another Chapter, in the next day, in the same week. It seems the inspiration fairy struck me twice. Let's hope for a third strike, folks!**

 **Having said that, it's the 'begging corner of begging' , where I try to emotionally blackmail you into leaving Follows, Favorites and Reviews.**

 **Ahem...**

 **"Please, Favorite/Follow and Review my story, or they'll break my legs!"**

 **With that out of the way, this is FrancoGamerxz, wishing you a good day/noon/evening/night.**


	39. Now, where have I seen this before?

**Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

 _ **~Story, Start!~**_

 _ **-Council Chambers, Konohagakure no Sato-**_

"Pranking an entire village? I'm _so_ game it isn't even funny."

Hiruzen watched Naruto in silent amusement, while Tsunade, who was beside him, had a surten outbreak of coughs that sounded _just a tad_ too similar to laughs.

Tsume didn't even try Tsunade's approach, openly chuckling at the excentricity of her Alpha, chuckling which was mirrored by Choza. On the other hand, Inoichi and Hiashi frowned, an expression reflected in the faces of the various civillian representatives, Shibi mantained his neutral expression, and Shikaku let out a muffle "Troublesome" from under his crossed arms.

But Koharu and Homura were the most obvious in their distaste, openly scowling at Naruto, before Koharu spoke up.

"Do you think this is a joke? This is a matter of great pollitical importance! And opportunity to get concessions from one of our, if not, our staunchest detractors! We could get increased mission requests, cash settlements, territory, or many other things which would strengthen us, while simultaneously weakening them! Take this seriously!"

Every instance of mirth disappeared at the feeling of Naruto's heavy presence filling the entire council chambers, causing Koharu to stiffen. Naruto then spoke in a serious tone, his sharp eyes focused solely on the old woman.

"Do not forget yourself, _Councilor_ Koharu. Iwa's actions were an attack upon the Uzumaki-Namikaze clan, and as such, any measure of retaliation has to be accepted by said clan's head. The entire situation was caused by the actions of a council member independent of their Kage's orders. Knowing what you have been doing in this village for a long time, and the actions you took against me directly, you two should be the last ones to try to play hardball. If i were to pass such crippling sanctions on Iwa, then it would only be fair that I did the same to Konoha for the things they did to me, no?

The only difference would be the fact that Iwa did it once, while Konoha was systematically fucking with me for 13 years straight. If you want to push me to be stern and unforgiving, I'll start the cleanup back home, and I'll start it by doing things to you that would have Ibiki and Anko begging for death. So, do you want to keep pushing for me to be unforgiving and uncompromising? Because believe me, _I will._ "

The two Elders started sweating as they felt further pressure weighing them down being directed at them by the various Clanheads, Tsunade and the Hokage.

Unconcerned by all this, Naruto stopped exerting his own pressure, leaning back into his seat and crossing his arms, a smirk adorning his face as he spoke.

"So, we were talking about pranking Iwa?"

Homura and Koharu could only nod nervously, wanting this meeting to end as fast as humanly possible.

"Well, I think we could..."

 _ **\- Uzumaki-Namikaze Compound -**_

"HAH!"

Hinata's voice spread around the above-ground training ground of her boyfriend's big-ass clan compound. After recovering from her injury, she had been pushing herself to her utmost limit, never wanting to be put in such a position again.

' _Naru-kun has a group of S-rank criminals after him! If I can't beat a handful of mediocre B-rank jounin, then how can I be of any help?_ '

The bluenette's eyes narrowed, veins starting to visibly bulge around them as she triggered her **Byakugan** , feeling the usual renewed sense of awareness within her mind as her field of view was expanded to 359º.

Pushing some chakra into her legs, Hinata dashed foward at Jounin-level speeds, stopping right in front of a training dummy before her arms turned into blurs. In 3 seconds, she had struck and hopped back, leaving a straw dummy with punctures where tenketsu would be in humans, around the elbow, shoulder and wrist areas of both arms, in order to impossibilitate the use of handsign-based jutsu.

' _Not good enough!_ '

Not breaking her stride from her previous step, she redirected herself towards another dummy, repeating the process of striking the dummy's 'Tenketsu' , but this time while channeling small amounts of Raiton chakra, leaving burn marks and arcing sparks of electricity on the straw surface.

Instead of hopping back, she dashed straight at the next one, her arms blurring again, before 32 small holes dotted the training dummy's torso area.

' _Nowhere near enough!_ '

In her frustration, Hinata started going over everything she had learnt from her excursions into the Hyuga main house library. Her mind moved through information rapidly, before a piece of information slithered into her awareness.

' _"...a rumored next level to the Jyuken, crafted by a main branch member through experimentation involving the use of said style. His attempts at improving the 'perfect' Hyuga fighting style were considered sacrilegious and disrespectful of the Hyuga traditions, and the man was punished by banishment into the secondary branch. While the original scroll bearing this technique was disposed of, someone had managed to catch a glimpse of it, and made it known that the secret behind the technique was in the chakra release of the hand and wrist tenketsu..."_ '

"Mhm..."

The Hyuga heiress dropped out of her fighting stance, looking contemplatively at her hands with her active Byakugan. Shrugging to herself, she started releasing chakra from the tenketsu in the upper portion of her fingers. She felt her eyes register the expected nimbus of chakra, so she pushed further.

The strength of the chakra she could see increased, but nothing else changed, so she kept pushing. While pushing as much chakra as her fingers could singlehandedly support, Hinata felt, more than she saw, her chakra flickering into the shape of... something.

' _I got something! I just have to repeat it..._ '

And so she went for over half an hour, pushing as much chakra as she could into her fingers trying to feel for the abnormal flicker and waver of her chakra as it tried to change itself, before the chakra went back to behaving normally.

Scowling, Hinata felt herself close to losing her temper. She had been trying the same thing for half an hour straight, and she knew something was either happening, or _was supposed to be happening_ , but she couldn't, for the life of her, nail down whatever it is she had to!

Frustrated by this lack of progress, paired with her lack of attention which led to her almost getting killed during her last mission, and by Hiashi and the Hyuga Council's constant attempts at sucking up to her to gain her favor, Hinata felt her control over her chakra slacken. Her fluxing chakra decided to follow the path that it had been moving through for 30 minutes straight, towards her upper limbs, but instead of simply staying on her fingers, the chakra filled her fingers and reached halfway towards her palms, causing her chakra to twist in the way that she felt it try to do before, before a hazy outline of... something mostly indistinct appeared over the top of her hands, wavering constantly.

Hinata tried reasserting her control over the chakra, wanting to grasp the sensation to follow up on it, but as soon as she tried to force it back into absolute control, she felt the sensation disappear altogether.

"GODDAMNIT!"

The bluenette punched a tree in anger at her last failure, ignoring the fact that it was broken through quite a bit of the way.

And she almost had it too!

"ARHG! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!?"

"Well... I _do_ have a theory of what it _might_ be, but I cannot truly affirm it to be so."

Hinata whipped around, her body automatically shifting into her modified Jyuken stance, only to find the calm form of Fuurinji Hayato watching her attempts at advancing her taijutsu. Letting out a sigh as she ascertained she wasn't about to get stabbed in the back, what Hayato said finally managed to register with her mind.

"A theory, Hayato-sama?"

"Yes" Hayato said with a nod "A theory."

"And what would it be?"

Hayato moved his hand to his beard, smoothin and grooming it as he seemed to be deep in thought, before speaking.

"You are trying to do to your chakra what the Hyuga clan almost did to you. You are trying to force it to do something that it does not wish to do. While we, as humans, have a certain measure of control over the energy that flows within all of us, said energy also has a certain level of autonomy based on it's nature. The main exemple is exactly the elemental natures of chakra. Normally, each person has their chakra naturally predisposed more towards this or that element. Even when people naturally have 2 or 3 elements, one of them manifests as the stronger, more dominant one.

But that's not the limit of things. Things such as the density of your chakra, the speed at which it flows, if it has an inclination towards genjutsu more than it does ninjutsu, if it prefers to gather at a specific area of your body over another... All of these factors are important when using chakra to accomplish tasks.

For example, you might be capable of forcing your chakra to stay on your fingers, but as long as it stays there, it won't want to do whatever it is you've been wanting it to do so far. Instead of forcing the chakra to do exactly what you desire it to, try coaxing it into doing it, and then letting it freely adjust itself and see how it responds, as it will do what is most natural, and, simultaneously, effective, for both you and itself."

Interiorizing Hayato's explanation, Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and closed her eyes, taking deep, relaxing breaths, before turning her focus inwards.

Even without the Byakugan active, and without natural sensory abilities like Naruto's, the sheer amount of familiarity Hinata had with her chakra system allowed her to feel how it moved, flowed, twisted and turned within her chakra coils. Instead of trying to force the chakra to collect in her fingertips, Hinata softly coaxed her chakra up her arms. She felt the chakra moving up, collecting on her fingers and filling all of their tenketsu, like what she tried to do.

Unlike what she tried to do, however, the chakra started moving up as it filled her tenketsu, causing her hands to overflow with chakra. As the chakra kept moving upwards, she felt it twisting, twirling, and changing, before it reached the middle of her forearms, and settled, as if saying ' _That's enough, I've done what I wanted to_ '.

Opening her eyes, Hinata was surprised to see what seemed to be two guardian lion heads covering her hands and wrists. Their faces were locked in dangerous-looking snarls, with their fangs bared fully. Their eyes shone with power, and black markings emerged from their snout up the rest of their head, which ended in flickering, ethereal, flame-like chakra.

Keeping the chakra flowing as it was and activating her Byakugan, Hinata turned towards one of the unmarred training dummies before dashing towards it, and following her body's instincts. Instead of striking with her fingers, punching, or trying to palm strike the dummy, she lightly placed her palm on it's chest, where a person's right pectoral would be, and lightly swiped in the opposite direction.

When she pulled her hand back, she saw holes not dissimilar to those left behind by an application of the 8 tigrams palm techniques on where the tenketsu would be, causing her eyes to widen further at that.

' _These can close tenketsu with just passing contact? That's really strong!... Wait, does it require my hand to make contact, or just the lion heads themselves? Can I choose how many tenketsu I close and how many I keep open, or just if I can selectively close them at all? How long can I mantain them for, and how draining are they when used on targets whose chakra actually resists being supressed, stolen or blocked? Can I add elemental chakra to them? Can I-_ '

"Calm down, young lady! I can almost see the smoke emerging from your ears, from the speed your ideas are travelling at!"

Listening to the light admonishment, Hinata blinked back into awareness. Noticing that he had the girl's attention, Hayato continued speaking.

"One must learn how to walk, before running. Before you start getting all fancy and technical on what you want to do, and drunk on the possibilities, work on mastering the basics. Learn how it works, why it works, how long it can work, that kind of thing. Then, and only then, are you ready to progress with it."

Hinata nodded resolutely at that, a glint of determination entering her eyes.

"You are correct, Hayato-sensei! First I will master this technique, and only then will I attempt to improve upon it. I shall call it... **Juho Soshiken!** (Gentle Step Twin Lion Steps). With it, I will make sure I'm no longer weaker than those after my life, and the lives of those close to me!"

Bowing lightly to the old martial artist, Hinata dashed away in excitment, searching for her Naru-koi in order to give him the news, and to use him as a test dummy for the technique, seen as he wouldn't miss any lost chakra, and could simply open his tenketsu at will.

Still hurt like a bitch to do, by the way.

 _ **-Training Field 13, Next Day-**_

"And what's _she_ doing here?"

Hyuga Hanabi bristled at Konohamaru's question and tone, but as she opened her mouth to answer, she was surprised by a hand being placed on Konohamaru's head and ruffling his hair, causing the boy to halfheartedly try to bat Naruto's hand away from his head, despite the fact that he enjoyed the show of affection from his older brother figure.

"Well, it's something that I was planning on telling you _before_ you had actually asked. Seeing as Hanabi doesn't have a team of her own, I asked for her to join our squad as well."

Seeing Hanabi's smug look, Konohamaru whined out.

"But why did _you_ have to take her in? Couldn't literally anybody else do so?"

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto answered.

"No, not really. You see, Hanabi aside from being the number one in her class, is the daughter of the Hyuga clanhead, considered gifted in the Jyuken, and is an overall overachiever. Of every other available jounin, none of them had the experience, patience or creativity to teach someone with the Byakugan, which is admitedly difficult for most people as their techniques are clan secrets that they are as likely to part with as Tsunade with her sake, though I have a workaround for that. What that means is that, aside from having an already made genin squad, crafted with complimentary and balanced skills, they'd have to take in one of the most talented in her generation, and try not to fuck up her training.

Fucking up her training and slowing down her progress would automatically earn you the disdain and enmity of the Hyuga clan, and would eventually spread such feelings through the rest of the shinobi population, marking you as a failure as a sensei, and as a shinobi.

Now, since I give absolutely zero shits about all of this posturing and polliticking, and since it's not Hanabi's fault that people are acting stupid, I decided to not leave her hanging and to take her in. The fact that training with Hinata-chan gave me more than just a bit of insight into the workings of the Byakugan, and that I'm in constant contact with my girlfriend and can try to tap her to help you in Jyuken-related matters I can't are great bonuses. And that's why Hanabi is now a member of Team Naruto, so play nice, kiddies."

While Udon and Moegi were neutral towards Hanabi, and so willing to give her a chance, Konohamaru's rivalry with the girl left him incapable of simply dropping the subject.

"But she didn't even have to pass any test like we did! That's so unfair towards us!"

Scratching at the newly-born wisps of scraggly, blonde hair on his chin, Naruto decided that bluntness was the way to go.

"Actually, the concept of having a 'real genin test' is absolutely stupid. The fact that we have those as protocol just shows how bad our basal educational standards are. The academy is supposed to prepare students for life as genin, meaning that they're mentally, physically and emotionally capable enough to join a squad.

The only reason you guys were even tested was because of the tussle between me and Ebisu to teach you. Any tests given to genin should be after a time period of working as a team, in order to assess both their improvement, and how capable their teacher happens to be.

Honestly, some of these tests are absolutely ridiculous, like expecting three fresh-out-of-the-academy brats to put aside personal motives and work for the collective in a bell test when you know that the academy is taking it's sweet time teaching kids that the drapes hung in the Hokage's office during Tobirama-Jiji's first year serving as such were blue in color."

The children could only sweatdrop at their sensei's annoyed rant, while simultaneously having a moment of realization where _everything he said clicked_.

Ignoring these feelings, however, Konohamaru managed to speak up, despite how hard it was for him to do so.

"I... guess it wouldn't be so hard to give _he_ -Hanabi-san a chance."

Moegi placed her hand on Konohamaru's shoulder, giving him a wide smile.

"See, Kono-kun? It isn't so hard to be nice to her. In fact, I'm making it my prerrogative that the two of you are best friends by the end of the year. Next step: Hugging."

Konohamaru and Hanabi paled, while Udon chuckled lightly. Naruto could only smile at the entire situation, before his eyes hardened, his voice following the same path as he next spoke.

"Okay, you brats! You came to me for training because you want to be the best of the best, well I'll make damn sure that happens, even if it kills you! And it will start with you lot giving me 5 laps around the entire of Konoha's perimeter!"

While Hanabi paled and froze in place, incredulous as what she had just heard, the rest of the kids just let out resigned groans before they started jogging. Seeing Hanabi standing there like a statue, Naruto barked out.

"Well what're you waiting for, huh!? GO! GO! GO!"

The girl sprinted out of the training field so fast a cloud of dust followed after her.

Smirking as the thoughts of the _training_ \- read, Torture - he was planning to submit the kids to, Naruto could only grin mischievously.

' _This Jounin-sensei gig is way better than advertised._ '

 _ **-3 weeks later-**_

' _Why did I ever accept the cargo of Jounin-sensei?_ '

The reason Naruto was lamenting his life choices right now was the fact that, after a relapse in hugging technique, Madame Shijimi, the Fire Daimiyo's wife, had lost her pet cat Tora in the village, and it just so happened that their team had landed the mission.

That by itself wasn't really a problem, Naruto liked Tora, and the cat positively adored the blonde, which should've made things easy...

"Stay still so I can skin you, you stupid cat!"

...But didn't, as his disciples took off before he could've attempted to pacify the kitty. Startled, Tora defaulted into her years-honed instinct of running, prompting his genin to run around the village, trying to capture her. Knowing that this would act as nice tracking training, and would increase their stamina by having the running around the village, Naruto let the chase continue.

Unfortunately, the cooperative and composed squad that beat his village-mandated graduation test, plus the cool-headed and intelligent Hyuga Hanabi were having as much success in their attempts to catch Tora as a wet paper bag at holding a 10 kg brick of marijuana.

Just not going to happen, and it'll end with someone very fucked up in the end.

Case in point, the fact that 6 hours after the mission was first assigned, and despite Hanabi's Byakugan, team Naruto just barely managed to catch Tora and take her to the Hokage's office, their faces and arms scratched to oblivion.

They happened to be met with Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura who were just finishing a D-rank mission of their own.

"Yo, person-who-I-call-sensei-but-didn't-really-teach-me-anything!"

Everyone in the room sweatdropped at that except for said person, who responded by raising his hand in a salute, his eye curved into the famed eyesmile.

"Yo, Naruto. So, how does the life of a Jounin-sensei treat you?"

"It's... alright. So, you guys here for a mission?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, ever since we got involved in the last C-turned-A-rank, I've limited Sasuke and Sakura to D-ranks while training them up." 

"Interesting." Naruto said, before turning towards the two mentioned Genin "So guys, how's your training going?"

" _ **Kill me.**_ "

Naruto sweatdropped at Sakura's request, while Sasuke scoffed at her. Kakashi seemed amused, Hiruzen seemed curious, and Tsunade was reading the 5th edition of the ' **Shinobi-Sutra** ', the Jounin and above chapter.

Unbidden, Sakura continued.

"Kakashi-sensei has us waking up at five to run laps around Konoha. After that, we go through Taijutsu practice, where he forces us to go through hundreds of repetitions of each set of Kata, then a 15 minute break before he start doing chakra control exercises. After that, he separates me and Sasuke and teaches him Ninjutsu, while teaching me some Genjutsu.

After that, we eat, and then we go for missions. After 3 or 4 D-ranks, it's back to training. Every. Single. Day. Naruto, _please_ , _**end my suffering**_."

While Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon and Hanabi could only give Sakura sympathetic looks, knowing how it feels to have a sadistic sensei who conflates training with torture themselves, while Naruto pointed an indignant finger towards Kakashi.

"Oii! You goddamn bastard! You're having them up at 5AM, but when I was part of your squad you couldn't bother to show up before 9, and that was when you told us to meet at 6! You could've taught me so many of the jutsu you know!"

Waving his hand in the air and ignoring his own, sweatdrop, Kakashi spoke in his lazy tone.

"Maa maa, Naruto. Don't you think you have enough Jutsu?"

The surprise response came simultaneously from Naruto, Konohamaru and Hiruzen.

" **You never have** _ **enough**_ **Jutsu!** "

Clearing his throat in order to play off his impulsive outburst, Hiruzen turned towards Naruto to adress him an his team.

"I see you've managed to collect Tora... Though given your sensei's precedent in speeding through this assignment, I expected you to be done way, _way_ earlier."

Hearing this tidbit for the first time, Naruto's team could only glare at him, while the blonde whistled nonchallantly, causing everyone else in the room, the hidden ANBU included, to sweatdrop.

Moving past this, Hiruzen called in Madame Shijimi, who collected her cat and started cuddling with it in the corner of the office.

"Okay, team Naruto, this is another successful D-rank in your files. If you're inclined to, we have more missions for you. You could babysit a councilman's baby, weed a lady's garden, paint Mr. Joji's fence-"

A feline screech and a cry of "TORA!" filled the room, before the sound of shattering glass from a broken window did.

"Or capture Tora."

' _Oii_ ' Kakashi thought ' _Why is it that I'm having a Deja-vu if none of this ever happened before?_ '

"No! No way! Nope! Refused! Denied! No more D-ranks!"

Hiruzen turned an amused look towards his grandson.

"Oh? No more D-ranks, you say?"

"Yeah, old man! We've been doing these damn chores for days on end, one after another! It's a waste of our time! We're _way_ overqualified for this!"

"I see." Hiruzen said, before turning his gaze towards Naruto "And what do you say as their sensei?"

Naruto just shrugged, pushing his hands into his pockets.

"About damn time, that's what I say. I was waiting for them to ask for a C-rank, knowing that they would when they thought they were ready."

' _It was as simple as asking?_ ' was the exasperated thought shared by Hanabi, Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru as they inwardly streamed tears.

"Well, that being the case..." Hiruzen said, before reaching into the C-rank pile, reading their tags and choosing one. Tossing the scroll at Naruto, he spoke.

"We have a group of merchants requesting an escort towards the Land of Vegetables."

' _A C-rank escort? Now I know the source of the Deja-vu. Well, not my problem this time. Nu-uh, Hatake Kakashi ain't going on another "C-rank" only to have to fight A-rank enemies, no siree. It's Naruto's problem now._ '

A random chunin slammed the doors to the Hokage's office open, surprising everyone. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the fact that his actions were severely punishable by D-ranks for life, said Chunin turned towards Kakashi before speaking.

"Hatake-san, Jillee Bine has just gone into labour, and she's calling for your presence!"

"Hokage-sama, Team 7 volunteers to back up Team Naruto on their first C-rank, seens as they're freshly graduated!"

Confused, Hiruzen simply inclined his head towards Kakashi, prompting the man to turn around to face his team with an unusual level of seriousness.

"Team 7, I want you travelling packs ready in 15 minutes, tops. We're leaving the village today, set up an advanced guarding perimeter for when Team Naruto makes contact with, and moves with the client. Go!"

Having said his part, Kakashi vanished in a cloud of smoke. While Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto's genin traded confused looks between eachother, Hiruzen facepalmed and Naruto chortled heartily. Tsunade ignored all of them in favor of her choice of literature.

' _The Human Ladder: Using a rope, a stepping ladder, a ballgag, and 2 liters of lube... Oh my!_ '

While the female Sannin giggled, a blush covering her face as a thin trail of blood fell down her nose, Madame Shijimi cleared her throat from her place in the corner of the room.

Regaining his focus, Hiruzen adressed the woman.

"Yes, Madame Shijimi, your cat shall be... _rescued_. Again."

The old man's gaze sharply turned towards the chunin that slammed his way into the office, and seemed to be trying to tiptoe away from the scene.

"You, chunin Katsugi, are tasked with capturing Tora. Go!"

The man's shoulders slumped, a dark cloud over his head as he shambled his way out of the office under sympathetic looks from Naruto's team, except for the blonde himself, who seemed to be brimming with amusement. Clapping his hands together, Naruto called out.

"Okay, team. Kono-kun, Moe-tan, Udo-kun, you go pack. I'll go with Hanabi-chan to the Hyuga compound to inform her father of her mission. Meet me at the village gates in 2 hours, I'll be waiting there with the clients."

With nods, the kids vanished with uses of the Shunshin, while Naruto and Hanabi vanished in a flash of orange.

"...He already taught them how to use the Shunshin without handsigns."

"Heh" Tsunade spoke from behind her book "Told you Naruto was the right choice to teach them."

Hiruzen could only nod at that, before he noticed something else.

"...And who the hell is supposed to clean up all of these leaves left behind?"

 _ **-Hyuga compound-**_

"As I've previously said, it is about time for the branding cerimony-"

The speaker, one of the Hyuga elders, was interrupted in his adress towards the clanhead and the rest of the council by a flash of orange, followed by the visage of their village's most prestigious shinobi, and the youngest of the clanhead's children. Before anyone could say anything else, Naruto spoke up nonchallantly.

"Oii Hiashi-teme, I just swung by to warn you that we've got a C-rank to a foreign country. Hanabi, you can go pack."

Stunned at the way her sensei adressed her father, Hanabi could only march out of the meeting room almost robotically, as the Hyuga adults themselves tried to process what had just occured.

When it finally clicked into place in their heads, outrage spread amongst the council.

"How dare you!"

"Respect your betters, child!"

"Just another jumped-up upstart."

"It doesn't matter who your parents are!"

Naruto was perfectly happy in ignoring all of these comments-

"We still know _what_ you are, Demo-urk!"

The man's sentence was cut at the same time as his air supply, both things done by Naruto's tight grip on the man's throat. While his face seemed nonchallant, as did his tone of voice, the pressure in the room spoke of how dangerous the blonde was at the moment.

"Hyuga-san, need I remind you of the Sandaime's law?"

A collective chill went through everyone's spines at the easygoing tone, but Naruto continued speaking.

"I might've let others off the hook for previous infractions, but I never said anything about future ones. This is the Hyuga clan's one and only warning. Break the law, I break you. And _then_ , I'll break your neck. Understood?"

The man could only nod frenetically at that, alongside the rest of the council when Naruto's eyes fell on each of them. Dropping the man on the floor, Naruto stepped over him as if he were yesterday's trash, before stopping in front of Hiashi.

"I'll be coming by next week to discuss something very important."

Hiashi nodded at that.

"I shall be prepared to recieve you."

Not even acknowledging the man's response, Naruto walked out of the council room, using his sensory abilities to go after his student.

When the blonde's presence finally vanished from their perception, the elders regained some of their bravado, before a bald, fat, decrepit old man spoke up.

"Hiashi! You cannot allow an impudent child to so thoroughly disrespect the sanctity and honor of the mightiest clan of the leaf! The Hyuga are to be respected, and revered!"

Letting out a frustrated breath, Hiashi spoke up, irritation tinging his tone.

"And what would you have me do? The child is pollitically powerful, being backed by the might of the Uzumaki and Namikaze clans, and having the favor of the Sarutobi, Inuzuka and Senju clans. He also has the favor of various foreign entities of power. He's the most popular figure in the village, getting some of the fame from his parents' achievements, alongside his various visible deeds, one of which was slaying Orochimaru of the Sannin, and, recently, singlehandedly defeating both of Iwa's Jinchuuriki, before confronting Onoki, the Tsuchikage, and walking away safely. His economic power is literally off the charts. No one knows how much money he has, but the estimations made of the accrued interest of the Uzumaki and Namikaze accounts, alongside his various S-rank missions during his brief stint in ANBU that was just recently made public, has him amongst the, if not as, the single richest person in Konoha, if not fire country.

Rumours say that he's richer than the Fire Daimiyo, but I do not know how close to the truth those are, so they are to be disregarded."

"...The girl. He's smitten with your eldest, then we use her against him. We forbid them from being together, and when they become desperate, we give him a marriage agreement linking his various assets to the Hyuga clan. If he disagrees, we marry her off to a rich noble..."

"And then the two of them murder all of us before we can even finish our sentence, for that is the only logical outcome of your moronic attempts at antagonizing both the Namikaze boy, and Hinata. You saw what happened the last time someone even alluded at threatening her and her sister. They ended up with a broken neck, and it happened quickly, cleanly, and effortlessly.

We try to pull something like that, and the Uchiha Massacre will find parity in the Hyuga clan."

Frustrated that they had no avenue of movement with which to try to outmaneuver, trap or in any way manipulate the boy, elder Nana, a spiteful old woman of 73 years of age, spoke up.

"If we cannot go after him directly, then we try the indirect methods. He seems to cherish your younger daughter as his student. We remove her from his team. This will lower his team's morale, and perhaps lower the village's estimation of him, seeing as the Hyuga did not trust him enough to teach their heiress."

Nana's self-satisfied almost-smirk was dashed when Hiashi spoke.

"This attachment is not one-sided. Hanabi cherished him as her teacher, and has been advancing at an unprecedented pace under his tutelage. Your plan would create resentment within Hanabi, break her trust in the clan, and ensure we have no Heiress with respect for the clan's traditions. With Hinata being as she is, Hanabi is our last chance at having a proper Hyuga clanhead."

Having that stated so bluntly brought a heavy mood to the chambers. Their way of life, the Hyuga traditions, what made them who they were... On the verge of dying, due to the 'wilful whims of a deluded girl', and their only hope was said girl's younger sister, who she happened to be very protective of, and who just so happened to be the disciple of the one so capable of changing people's minds through extended contact, as if it were some sort of bloodline of his.

They would have to do their possible best to inculcate the value of Hyuga traditions into the girl, as her older sister and teacher would not act against her.

 _ **-Village gates, Later-**_

"Okay kids, are you all set to go?"

Receiving nods from his 4 students, Naruto nodded back in happiness, before adressing the clients.

"We will move at your behest."

And like that, team Naruto left Konoha for their first C-rank mission.

 _ **~Chapter End~**_

 **Another day, another chapter. Inspiration's been a kind mistress lately, so... Yeah. But don't take these constant updates for granted any more than I am. Sometimes, creativity's a right bitch to muster up, so... That.**

 **Now, mandatory begging time:**

 **"Pwease leave a follow, favorite and review. The lady in the orphanage said that it'll close if we don't get many of those."**

 **Okay, with that out of the way, this is FrancoGamerxz signing out.**


	40. A broken student, a teacher's rage

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

 _ **~Story, Start~**_

 **-With teams Naruto + 7-**

"No, seriously, what the actual fuck!? Did I inadvertedly offended some deity? Knocked down some shrine? Was I a total bastard in my previous life? Or is the universe just conspiring against me?"

Hatake Kakashi was on his wit's end, just short of ripping his hair off. Why, you ask?

Well, let's back up a bit.

 _ **-Previous week-**_

"AHN, NARUTO-KUN! RAVAGE ME, YOU SEXY BASTARD!"

"Hinata-chan... Tight..."

" _ **DESTROY ME, GODDAMNIT! I DON'T WANT TO BE ABLE TO STAND UP ON MY OWN FOR DAYS!**_ "

Oh shit, sorry, we came back a bit too far. It's a bit further ahead.

 _ **-Following week, 2 days into the escort mission-**_

"...So, Kakashi... What was that thing about the maternity ward, and this Bine person?"

Kakashi sighed loudly, running his hands through his hair, before speaking up.

"She's a civillian woman that I was seeing. We went on a few dates, spent time together, and became an item for all of 2 weeks, before her crazy started showing. We were together for less than a month, and she was already planning out our hypothetical wedding, buying our first home, and the names of our children.

She got way too clingy, and if I did as much as greet another woman, she'd actually, physically growl. I even found her sniffing my underwear once and touching herself."

Naruto shrugged at the last point.

"I don't see what's so bad about the last one, Anko and Kiyomi enjoy doing that, and it tends to lead to the wildest bouts of sex possible."

"You don't see what's so bad about the last one, yes, but you also happen to not see what's so bad about sticking your meat in your dead-for-14-years zombie mom, so your opinion is kind of null here. As I was saying, I found her touching herself while sniffing my undies, and then she went and tried to destroy my Icha Icha, saying that I shouldn't turn my attention on those 'paperback floozies', and that my eye should be completely focused on her."

Naruto blinked owlishly at that.

"Wow, what a psycho."

"I know, right! So we broke up, and this was like, way back when, before your chunin exams even happened, so almost a year. She shows up all of a sudden, her belly as big as Fire country, and saying that I happened to have squirted my cake mix into her oven, and she's baking _our_ bun, our 'love child'."

"So... It's not your kid?"

"No, Naruto. Jillee Bine is not my lover. She's just a girl who claims that I am the one, but the kid is not my son."

Changing his focus to the momentarily more important subject matter, Kakashi adressed the group of peddlers they were escorting.

"Oii, none of you would happen to have some extra information about our mission, would you? Possible enemies, pollitical matters, gangsters, midget crime lords, royal heritage, nothing of the sort, right?"

His focus being immediately occupied by the few peddlers directly around him, he missed the moment that three of the people in the group, a woman and two men, traded nervous looks.

Naruto, however, did not.

Signaling his students to keep the pace they were walking at, Naruto started pulling ahead towards the front of the group and enganged the woman in a conversation, completely ignoring the men.

 _ **-5 hours later-**_

"Kikunosoke, Yurinoshin" started Shun, said female merchant from the surpicious three "I'll be in the woods for a bit, taking care of my private business."

The men nodded, allowing the woman to move out. Unnoticed by all, Naruto also slipped away from their group, taking the long way around towards where Shun was headed for. Naruto leant against a tree, Shun doing the same at a bit of a distance from him.

"So... A princess?"

"Yes. As you have probably surmised, calling me Shun is not completely truthful. My name is Shun Haruna, daughter of the Daimiyo of the land of vegetables. My father has died, so I am being returned home to take the place as Daimiyo."

"Your father died... How? Because I caught your hesitation, and if it were a natural death, you'd probably not need to play cloak and dagger like this on your way there."

"...He was assassinated."

"Ah, I see. And let me ask you, did you not think about the potential risk that this misinformation would cause? And I don't speak about us Shinobi, we came into this profession knowing the risks. I talk about the other, innocent peddlers. Your two shinobi guards were ready to defend you in case things went to shit, but I don't see them paying anywhere near that level of attention to the rest of the 'caravan'."

Haruna's eyes widened at that.

"You knew about Kikunojo and Yurinojo?"

Naruto shrugged, before answering.

"Well, I knew that the two of them were shinobi from the amount of body control that they have, the self-assured way that they move, the ease with which they move heavy objects despite their not overlu bulky physique, and from the _look_ in their eyes. The only reason Kakashi didn't notice is because he's hella distracted. But that still doesn't answer my question, does it?"

Raising her eyebrow, Haruna responded in a matter-of-fact tone.

"My safety is what's most important. Even if the others had to be sacrificed, as long as I am fit for taking the position of Daimiyo, then in the end it will be worth it." 

Frowning, Naruto uncrossed his arms, taking slow, deliberate steps towards Haruna, before slapping her in the face. It was a lovetap for anyone with some degree of shinobi training, academy students included, but for a civillian, a noble at that, it was as if she had gotten stabbed with a kunai.

Reeling, Haruna put her hand to her stinging cheek, whimpering lightly, some tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. As she turned a look at Naruto, she was met with something she had never seen before. Naruto's gaze, is facial expressions, his entire posture just oozed disappointment.

"You're supposed to be a good leader to your people, yet you can only think about yourself? Your safety is all that matters? What kind of ruler puts themselves above their subjects! If you're not willing to make those kinds of decisions, then don't put yourself in a position that will force you to.

If you're incapable of valuing other people above yourself, then you shouldn't even think about being a Daimiyo."

"...up." The downed girl mumbled.

Leaning down, cupping his hand next to his ear, Naruto asked.

"What? You say something?"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

Not even noting the raised eyebrow from the blonde, Hotaru spoke in an angry tone.

"You think I don't know that? It's what I think, day and night! It's been haunting my nightmares ever since I heard the news my father died! Do you think I don't know that mindset isn't fit for a ruler?"

"Then, why keep on with it?"

"BECAUSE!-...because it's the only way to make it easier." Hotaru looked down, her hair covering her face as her warm tears fell on the ground, before she spoke with a trembling voice.

"My father sent me away from the village, sequestered me elsewhere, far away from my friends, from my land, from company, saying that it was all for the sake of protecting our country by keeping me safe. Kikunojo and Yurinojo... They did all they could to make me feel comfortable, but I could never look at them as proper companions. They were just men ordered by my father to watch over me. They believed themselves my protectors..."

"...But you saw them as your wardens instead."

Hotaru's face shot up towards Naruto, and instead of meeting the disappointed look, she was surprised by the sympathetic one she met. Not done with his surprises, Naruto kept talking.

"You're forcing yourself to keep this mindset, because otherwise, you'd have to accept that your sacrifice was for nothing. I get where you're coming from. I have experience with being unwillingly sacrificed, and questioning whether or not it was worth it, believe me."

"How can you deal with it? How can you not be bitter and jaded about it?"

Naruto shrugged at Hotaru, before pushing his hands back into his pockets.

"Because, first of all, sulking, acting all depressed and whatnot, won't change a thing. It just makes you sink deeper into a pit of despair. And if you feel bad right now, then you don't want to know how true despair truly feels.

Second, I keep in mind that it isn't my fault. I didn't choose to be born where, when, or to whom I was. I didn't choose to gain a certain significance to someone. I didn't choose to be sacrificed. Those were all the choices of someone else, and while I'd be lying if I said I was okay with it, I _am_ okay with what they lead to.

For good or for worse, those things were the catalyst into making me who I am today, and I have to say that I really, _really_ love myself. I'm absolutely awesome, so... Yeah.

And third of all, remember this. Their actions may have forced you into an admitedly bad position, but through your own actions and choices, you can grow above that and craft your own path in life, however you want.

The bottomline is, you can choose to bitch and moan, and act like a totally frigid bitch with a stick shoved up your ass for the rest of your life, or you can rise above the _mere_ sacrifice you were meant to be, and make something significant out of yourself, your choice."

Haruna's eyes widened further, her head rearing backwards as if she had been slapped ( _again_ ), as she watched the blonde push his hands into his pockets, before around and walking back towards the peddler convoy, whistling a tune.

After being out of sight of Haruna for a few steps, Naruto stopped, before speaking seemingly to empty air.

"Head on forth to the Land of Vegetables, get an assessment of the situation there and inform me. I want to know what's going on there."

A female figure wearing a long-sleeved, white button up shirt with a black vest over it, black dress pants, similarly coloured dress shoes, a black overcoat with a red swirl embroidered on her chest pocket and a white mask, with only a large, red Uzumaki spiral engraved on it nodded from her hiding spot, before a shift in the air signaled her moving away.

' _Gotta love competent help. Makes my life so much easier._ '

Walking out of the vegetation with the knowledge that there were still others of his operatives protecting Haruna, Naruto watched as his four genin socialized with the Sakura and the peddlers, with Konohamaru talking animatedly to the most travelled one in the group, probably asking for stories about the various different countries, Udon talking to the most money-savvy one of the group, asking tips on resource management for small groups like their own, Moegi looking starry-eyed at the assortment of weapons that another of the traders sold, and Hanabi listening to the life stories being told to her by a woman, her attempts at mantaining her 'Hyuga composure' despite her blatan interest being insanely amusing.

Sasuke, on the other hand, stood away from the various talking groups, his arms crossed as he leaned into a tree, covered by it's shadow, with only his eyes showing.

Once again speaking to seemingly thin air, Naruto mumbled out "Well isn't that foreboding."

He got a response from the copy ninja perched on a branch somewhat above him.

"He's been reverting ever since you left the squad. With only Sakura as a teammate and a measuring stick, his arrogance is rearing it's head. I'd do something about it, but he'd probably disregard it since I'm his sensei and I'm supposed to be stronger. Sometimes it seems her believes himself to be the best amongst his peers..."

"Before he remembers me."

"Right."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Naruto spoke up in a tired tone.

"Kakashi, each person makes their own choice on whether they want to allow themselves to give into the darkness or not. When the time comes, Sasuke will have to make his choice. Not me, not you, not Sakura, not even Itachi. Sasuke. And no matter what he chooses, you have to remember that it's none of our faults."

Letting out a tired sigh, Kakashi answered.

"I'll keep that in mind. Hearing that coming from you sets me much more at ease. The prospect of you going bad like Orochimaru or Itachi is terrifying, specially considering how much I know about you today, and all of what I probably _don't_ know."

Naruto smirked smugly at Kakashi for that comment.

"Are you admitting how much more of a badass I am than the famed _Copy Ninja Kakashi_?"

Chuckling lightly, Kakashi flipped to his next page before answering.

"Not in your dreams, kid. Your way with the ladies _is_ very impressive though, I'll give you that."

"I know, right? I'm even thinking about starting my own series of literary novels. Like Icha-Icha, except actually good. I'm thinking of calling it... ' _Ninjas of Love_ '. Given the fact that I _actually_ have plentiful experience in the bedroom department, a kink list about a boss summon high, and enough creativity to think of more than smut to actually make a coherent narrative, I believe It'll be a resounding success."

Kakashi scoffed lightly at that.

"As if anyone could write something better than Icha-Icha."

Winking at the cyclops, Naruto walked towards his genin team before speaking.

"Okay, my cute disciples! We're going to organize shifts, for perimeter watchers to keep us safe during the night. Lights out at 10, with Konohamaru and Udon keeping watch until 1:30. Since 2AM is maximum darkness, me and Hanabi will slot from 1:30 to 3, 3 to 4:30 goes to Sasuke and Sakura, 4:30 to 6 is Kakashi, I'll pick up at 8 and then we'll move. Understood?"

After all team members expressed their agreement, they went back to mingling until lights out.

The night was peaceful, with no snags, obstacles or attended intruders, and by 8:30 everyone was up and ready to move.

A few hours into their walk, Naruto called a halt to the group.

"Sorry, too much water. Give me 5 minutes."

He moved into the woods, watching the same female figure from the previous day dropping to a knee in front of him, before handing him a packet.

"I did not expect you to return so soon."

"It was easier to access the information than expected, Naruto-sama. The few shinobi they have are barely chunin in strength. It was so easy to infiltrate and extract info that it isn't even funny."

"Very well. You are free to go."

The kneeling figure nodded, before vanishing in a blurr of speed.

Naruto chuckled lightly, before walking back towards the rest of the convoy and motioning them to procceed. He fell into step next to Kakashi, before whispering to him.

"This mission isn't a simple C-rank escort."

Ignoring Kakashi's groan of "Of course it isn't" , Naruto kept whispering.

"Shun isn't a peddler, her full name is Shun Haruna, she's the daughter of the Vegetable country Daimiyo who's been sequestered away from the village for years. The two men hanging around her are her guards. Her father died and she was returning to assume command.

Her father's death wasn't an accident, or a natural one though. A trio of B-rank shinobi by the name Janin killed him, before taking over the country through backroom pollitics with power-hungry courtiers and various other nobles, major and minor. After they gained leadership, they killed all of the greedy bastards. We're going to have to take care of them so that Haruna can assume her post if she so desires."

Letting out a sigh as he rubbed his forehead, Kakashi spoke.

"At least they're just B-ranks."

Giving him a sideways, amused look, while wearing a smirk on his lips, Naruto spoke merrily.

"You just totally Jinxed it~"

"I did, didn't I?"

"Yup. Anything worse happens, like a rogue Bijuu, or an S-rank shinobi, and we can agree to say that it's all your fault."

 _ **-Hours Later, Vegetable Country Proper-**_

"Halt, Konoha Ninja, and turn back lest you court death! We, are the Jani- Holy shit that's Uzumaki Naruto!"

As the brother in the middle cried out with a trembling finger pointing towards the blonde, the other two reacted differently. One of them started taking fearful steps backwards, his mouth flapping uselessly, while the other one pissed himself, before passing out. The first sibling continued speaking.

"Y-you singlehandedly beat the 4 and 5 tails at the same time, before facing off with the T-Tsuchikage! Y-you're 'Human Calamity' Uzumaki Naruto, the SS-rank shinobi!"

As everyone else in the group turned towards Naruto giving him awed looks, Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing in anger.

" _ **What.**_ "

That single, harshly-whispered word was enough to send the other two members of the Janin into unconsciousness, with the rest of his group watching, simultaneously surprised, awed, and more than a bit scared at watching the unflapabble blonde looking so angry.

"T-Those _Iwa bastards!_ "

Kakashi almost felt sorry for the entirety of the Iwa shinobi corps, for having earned the anger of the blonde. Almost.

"Those fuckers added me to the _bingo book_ -"

Everyone edged away lightly from Naruto, anticipating an explosion...

"-As an _SS-rank_? A _fucking SS-rank_? I beat _two_ full-powered, fully-transformed Jinchuuriki simultaneously, war-veteran Jinchuuriki, before squaring up the Tsuchikage! I deserved a special designation of my own, something like an _N-rank_ , or an _X-rank_!"

Only to sweatdrop at the source of his anger. His tone went lower, changing from raging to actually whining and sulking, while his team followed instructions to lead him towards one of the premier hotels, for them to rest in.

The two teams spent two full weeks on the Land of Vegetables, being present in Haruna's inauguration, where she unveiled her change of heart and personal phylosophy, no longer valuing herself above everything else...

Before pulling Naruto into a hot, steamy kiss right in front of the assembled people, surprising the blonde, and announcing that she would be entering negotiations to ally herself to the blonde's Nation.

Kakashi could only cry silently in pride in his sensei's son, and previous student, at the fact that he always managed to get the girl in the end.

By the end of the two weeks, Haruna was seen constantly wearing a beatific smile and sporting a small limp - _after_ the application of medical ninjutsu, without it she'd straight up be unable to move - and Naruto was witnessed constantly scribbling in a notebook whenever he had a flat enough surface to work on. Hanabi had _discreetly_ activated her Byakugan to know what her sensei was writing about so often, and ended up passing out with a massive blush and steam pouring out of her ears.

She'd never look at mackerel the same way.

The Janin, after regaining consciousness, had all but begged Kakashi to arrest them, lest they be torn appart by the ' _Human Calamity_ ', resulting in the three of them knocking themselves out via headbut to a tree, before getting sealed into prisioner scrolls.

As they left the village, a group of well-wishers went to see them off, singing praises to their Daimiyo's ' _Royal Consort_ ' and his subordinates, which had Kakashi's eyebrows suffering a set of seizures, Sasuke scowling, Sakura blushing pervertedly, a thin trail of blood rolling down her nose ( _Ah, Naruto-sama, you need to punish your disobedient underling!_ ), and Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon all but rolling on the ground, while Hanabi watched on in confusion. Once she had been told the reason by the other members of team Naruto, she had to fight hard to maintain her stoic façade, though the amused gleam in her eyes paired with her smirk gave her away.

They had been running for about four hours, with Kakashi relaxing, confident that the C-rank curse had been, if not broken, at least relegated to the B-rank curse...

" **Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu!** (Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Technique)"

Before a massive shark made of water shot towards the group. While almost all of them had scattered, Naruto, without breaking stride, responded by flicking his sword's guard, before everyone watched the shark gain some thin lines, then be reduced into a puddle of water.

A twitch from the bushes, followed by a blur of motion, lead to blue-skinned sharkman crossing swords with the blonde, doing his best to push the blonde forward with his sheer brute strength.

"Hey, you're that shark guy, Hoshibaki Togame?"

Kisame, already disliking Naruto from the time he, Itachi and Zetsu all got played for fools by the young man, growled and tried to push forward even harder, a vein throbbing on his forehead. Ignoring the sharkman's visible anger, Naruto kept speaking.

"Wait... Don't you Bakatsuki fellas travel in duos? Then where is..."

" **ITACHI!** "

Sasuke's maddened shot filled the clearing, right before the sound of chirping birds did. He glared at Itachi, his 3-tomoe sharingan proudly meeting his brother's own, before he slammed his hand on the ground, his opposite hand gripping at his shoulder, and he tried kicking his way towards Itachi...

Before a tug on the back collar of his shirt pulled him out of balance, followed by a pinch to the back of his neck, rendering the male unconscious. Naruto's clone tossed Sasuke towards Sakura, who slid backwards lightly from the impact, before placing her teammate behind her and pulling her Kunai out to defend him.

While Kakashi lifted his headband and revealed his Sharingan, intent on fighting Itachi while Naruto fought Kisame, Naruto sent out orders to his squad.

"Team Naruto, help Sakura keep watch over Sasuke. Do not let your focus waver even once, and do _not_ try to join this fight."

Weaving one-handed handsigns with his off-hand given the fact that his main hand was in the bladelock with Kisame - a skill taught to him by Haku - Naruto stomped on the ground, causing a veritable wall of sharp, water needles to condense from the air.

" **Sensatsu Suisho!** (Thousand Flying Needles of Death)"

Jumping backwards to avoid the needles, Naruto released them upon Kisame, forcing the sharkman to jump, up being the only path with no needles in the way. Using that small window, Naruto slit his left wrist, going through another slew of one-handed handsigns, before the blood coalesced into a physical clone of Naruto, who moved to support Kakashi.

"Kakashi, that clone is about as strong as you, maybe a bit stronger. Work with it to ward Itachi off. I'll finish Kisame off, before joining up to support you." 

Kisame's roar of "YOU DEAD!" signaled the next bladelock, while Naruto's clone landed next to the copy ninja, before shooting straight towards Itachi, going for a swipe with a hidden wakizashi.

Itachi parried the blow with a Kunai, but as he was about to counter, a kunai with a paper bomb landed between the two, causing both of them to jump away, Naruto clone landing next to Kakashi again, and Itachi landing across them.

While this was happening, Kisame and Naruto were trading sword attacks at ridiculous speeds, the griding of Nadàr's blade on Samehada's scales causing sparks to emerge. Kisame, trying to move past the bladelock, spat out a high-speed glob of water, forcing Naruto to lean backwards, losing leverage and allowing Kisame to push him back with Samehada, before he swung from where he was, surprising the watching Genin when the sword extended, a maw of wickedly sharp teeth opening up at the top and biting down on Naruto's side...

Only for the blonde to turn into a puddle of water, the real one appearing behind Kisame and slashing his head off.

Kisame responded in kind, turning into a puddle of water as well, before the real shark man emerged from below Naruto, from a puddle of accumulated water, a clubbed the blonde with the bandaged sword.

Sliding backwards, Naruto coughed out a few specks of blood, pushing chakra into his cracked ribs in order to rapidly repair them. When Kisame tried to dash forward to capitalize on this, he was countered by a sea of earth spikes that emerged from under his feet, forcing him to jump away.

Standing back to his full height, Naruto spoke calmly.

"You're good, Kazama-san-"

"IT'S KISAME, GODDAMNIT!"

"-but not good enough."

Hearing the blonde speaking over him as if he didn't even say a thing, Kisame snapped.

"That's it, killing you now. You're dead. Dead. Dead! DEAD! **SUITON: DAIKODAN NO JUTSU!** (Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Technique)"

A massive shark made of water sprang forth from the various puddles arrayed around the area, it's size about as big as the full form of Shukaku, witha gaping wide maw full of sharp, misaligned teeth. It's movement bit into the eart, creating a large trench, as it moved full speed towards Naruto.

Everyone not involved in the fight at the moment turned to look, including Kakashi and Itachi. They saw the massive shark growing closer to Naruto, the manic gleam in Kisame's eyes, and the way the blonde stood completely straight, his eyes closed and his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword.

" **Rule over what you gaze upon, Nàdar** (Nature) **!** "

Five bursts of elemental power emerged from Naruto's body, before he kept his gaze fixed on the massive shark travelling towards him.

Crouching lightly, Naruto pulled the sheathe tightly into his waist and gripped it, preparing for a slash, while the red wing lit up brightly.

In a smooth, single motion, Naruto slashed, causing a wave of fire to jump from his blade and travel towards the shark, impacting into it.

"Hahahahaha, you stupid brat! My **Daikodan** feeds off of any chakra it touches to become even stronger! And you even tried to counter it with fire! GAHAHAHAHAHA! Die! DIE, YOU BR-WHAT!?"

Kisame's eyes widened when he saw the flaming slash not decrease even slightly in size, instead start to carve into the water construct. Steam emerged from the point of contact in increasing amounts, and as Kisame was gearing up to add more chakra to his jutsu, it suddenly got blasted through, with the slightly weakened flaming arc speeding towards him.

" **Suiton: Suijinheki!** (Water style: Water Encampment Wall)"

The shark man managed to create a wall of water around himself, before an explosion of fire covered him.

Naruto's students could only stare at him in undisguised admiration, stars shining in their eyes. Konohamaru was admiring the huge, flash fire move, Moegi was freaking out over his sword that seemed to have superpowers, Udon was suitably impressed by the fact that his teacher had managed to beat out a jutsu of a superior element so handily, and Hanabi couldn't help but goggle at the way that he stood, tall and dignified, completely composed, wielding such large amounts of power at one moment, but was readily goofing off and joking around the next. It was a major disconnect in her young mind.

With Kisame, things were different. The man was pissed. No, more than pissed. He was absolutely livid. How could a 14 year old brat beat him, _HIM_ , in swordsmanship, raw strength and Jutsu? Sure, the kid had the 9 tails shoved inside of his gut, but he was the tailless bijuu for a reason! He could match the demon containers! Plus, his jutsu was supposed to _eat chakra_. How the hell did the brat manage to beat a jutsu that eats chakra, a water element one at that, with a _Fire JUTSU_!?

Angry beyond all belief, Kisame decided to get even with the kid. Even if he couldn't beat him, he would at least make him suffer.

" **Suiton: Suigadan!** (Water style: Water Fang Bullet)"

A water drill shot out from the curtain of steam Kisame was in, surprising everyone as it bypassed Naruto completely, heading towards...

' _The Kids!_ '

Naruto turned around in horrified realization, and as he was about to use his Hiraishin to get there, he felt a mouthful of sharp fangs biting into his side, all but tearing a chunk of flesh off of his torso, copious amounts of blood covering his clothes and his chakra being drained. Stalled for an instant, Naruto could only watch helplessly as the water fang travelled towards his students.

 _ **-Hanabi's POV-**_

As she watched the water fang fly towards her, the fear causing her mind to process it as if in slow motion, despite the fact that her body wouldn't be able to react either way, only one thought passed through her mind.

' _I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'M GONNA DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!'_

 _ **-General POV-**_

The same thoughts ran through the minds of the rest of the conscious genin, while Kakashi and Naruto clone watched in horror as the attack neared the children. Kisame cackled gleefully at seeing the brat's despair, and Itachi, while outwardly stoic, was inwardly sorrowful, watching the loss of innocent life, adding once more to his pile of sins...

A blur deposited a figure in front of the rest of the genin, causing everyone's eyes to widen. It's hands were in a boar sign, as it discharged all of it's chakra into a single jutsu.

" **DOTON: ROKKUAMA!** (Earth Style: Rock Armor)"

Clumps of rock and stone covered him completely in a thick armor, before the water fang slammed into the torso. For a second it seemed like the armor would hold, as the jutsu weakened, before a crack was heard. In an instant, the entire armor crumbled, before the sound of tearing flesh and gushing blood filled the area.

Everyone was equally surprised at the figure of Sarutobi Konohamaru standing in front of the leaf nin, a deep, twisted gash carved into his torso, his shirt torn to shreds, copious amounts of blood flowing down the sides of his mouth as he stood protectively in front of his team.

Turning his head in obvious pain, Konohamaru gave his fellow genin a bloodstained smile, before rasping out.

"N-no one touches... My team... Kore!"

Having said that, the boy swayed on his feet, before falling backwards.

Hanabi's shriek broken everyone out of their shock, with Naruto kicking Kisame away from him so hard the shark man was lucky his insides weren't liquified, the blonde himself ignoring the chunk of rapidly regenerating flesh that was torn from his side in the process.

As Naruto made to move towards his team, he was interrupted by a water clone of Kisame's swinging the Samehada at him, forced to jump back lest he be decapitated.

 _ **-With Hanabi-**_

Hanabi couldn't explain what prompted her to move, nor could she explain how she moved as fast as she did, but she was beside the downed Konohamaru in an instant, her hands trying to find purchase on his torso, trying to stem the bleeding, yet failing completely, the red,life-giving liquid staining her hands and her long-sleeved shirt.

Yet, she didn't care.

Sarutobi Konohamaru, the most idiotic, infuriating, irritating boy Hanabi had ever met had stood directly in front of an attack that, even if it hadn't killed the entirety of their team, would have at least torn her to shreds, while she herself was frozen in fear, incapable of moving a muscle.

Hot, salty tears sprung from her eyes, falling on the young Sarutobi's face as she tried her best to keep him alive.

"D-don't cry on me, you crybaby. You'll stain my shirt-kore."

Hanabi's face flared in hope as she saw her teammate's eyes opening. Though they seemed to occasionally swim lightly, they were mostly focused on her. Even more tears fell from her face as she spoke.

"Why? Why did you do that, you idiot!? You could've moved away, you could've protected your friends! Why did you save _me_?"

"I don't know" The young boy spoke with a pained smile on his face "My body just moved on it's own."

As he finished saying that, his eyes fluttered to a close, his body going limp in Hanabi's arms.

"Hey."

The girl kept her hands firmly on the boy's injury, her eyes wide open as she spoke past trembling lips.

"H-hey you idiot, get up!"

Sakura could only avert her gaze, tears springing up to her own eyes. _She_ was the senior genin there, _she_ should've been the one in charge of protecting the others, yet she was completely useless from start to finish, forcing a child 2 to 3 years younger than her to trade his life for their own.

' _H-how could I ever believe I got stronger? Even if I can fight chunin now, what does it matter if I have to be saved by the person I was supposed to protect?_ '

Moegi and Udon weren't having an easier time.

Udon could only stare incredulously, his eyes and mouth wide open as he watched one of his best friends lying lifelessly on the ground.

Moegi could only hug herself and cry silently, her best friend of years lying in a pool of his own blood right in front of her.

"GET UP, MONKEY-BOY!"

This last shout did it. Seeing no response, Hanabi's lip trembled, tears thickening as she layed her head on Konohamaru's chest, ignoring the blood staining her hair and shirt, and wept openly.

Kisame smirked smugly at Naruto, having recovered enough to keep fighting by having Samehada push the stolen chakra from the blonde himself into him.

"Heh, I got your brat, and you'll be ne-"

Kisame's sentence was interrupted by a hand gripping his face, before he felt his scalp and neck burn as he was dragged along the ground harshly, followed by being bodily thrown against a boulder hard enough to create an indent of himself in it.

Before he could even get his rolling eyes back in control, he was hit with a kick that caused the massive boulder behind him to absolutely shatter, and him to puke out a massive amount of blood, his eyes whiting out.

As he started falling on the ground, a thick, spiked chakra chain wrapped around his neck, before the limp body was reeled closer towards the blonde, lightly raised in the air.

A sword stab to the gut awakened the shark man, but an intense electrical discharge from said sword caused him to scream out in agony, the smell of burning flesh not even registering in his thoughts due to the mind-numbing pain.

The shark man managed to muster up some of his S-rank resilience to meet the blonde's gaze, wanting to look him in the eye and see the anger, the despair, the hatred, to know that even if he died, at least a piece of the blonde died alongside him.

He saw only blank.

Blank eyes, blank face, blank posture. Absolutely zero emotion was on show from the blonde, and that caused Kisame to feel a sense of terror welling in his heart.

An angry, hateful man would kill him quickly enough. Sure, he would torture him, would try to make him suffer, but he'd eventually lose control and kill him accidentally. A man capable of keeping such a level of control on his emotions during this sort of situation? He'd be living in a dungeon for years, incapable of even killing himself.

For the first time in his life, Kisame felt true fear.

His thoughts were then disrupted as another surge of electricity ripped through him, causing him to shout loud enough to tear at his vocal chords.

Away from this, Itachi wasn't having an easier time. Naruto's clone had blanked in emotion as well, unnerving even the stoic kinslayer, before going completely offensive. It avoided only immediately lethal strikes, such as decapitation, pierced head and so on. Anything else he allowed himself to be hit by, trading out hits. The clone would normally be A-rank, but without worrying about lasting long, or it's own integrity, fighting in a suicidal manner, it was putting the Uchiha through his paces.

More than once, Itachi had found himself forced to summon bits and pieces of his Susano'o in order to avoid deadly injuries, but the pressure just kept ramping up.

Breathing out a fireball and using that moment to replace himself with an exploding clone, Itachi too the time to look at his partner, only to actually wince at what he saw.

Naruto had dropped Kisame's half-dead body on the ground, his foot slowly pressing down on the man's chest, causing his sternum to slowly crack and pop as the pressure slowly, slowly broke it.

Many tiny chains, about as thick as Naruto's fingernails, were constantly spearing through Kisame's limbs, poking tiny holes in him that brought the same effect as one would feel from one thousand simultaneous papercuts: You wouldn't die, you'd only wish you did.

And Kisame was clearly wishing for death, if Itachi interpreted the pained, wet gasping gurgle emerging from his throat.

Knowing that the two of them would die soon if things kept progressing as they did, and seeing that Kakashi had started being capable of following the rhythm of his fight with the Naruto clone and would soon be capable of intruding upon the fight, Itachi closed his eyes, ready to activate his Mangekyo and go all out...

"HE'S STILL ALIVE!"

Until the hopeful, and somewhat desperate voice of the young Hyuga that belonged to Naruto's squad called out.

 _ **-A few minutes earlier, with Hanabi-**_

' _You idiot! Why'd you have to go and try to play hero? I didn't ask you to save me! I didn't ask you to DIE for me! Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ '

Hanabi kept shouting at both Konohamaru, for putting himself in harm's way to protect her, and at herself for needing to be protected in the first place.

' _If only I were stronger... If only-_ '

* _...ump_ *

Hanabi's eyes widened from where she lied, her head on the young Sarutobi's chest, before she strained her ears as much as she could, unconsciously sending chakra towards them as she tried to listen for something, anything at all.

' _Come on! Come on!_ '

Hanabi's eyelids started drooping in sadness, until...

* _Ba-thump_ *

It was faint, but she definitely heard a heartbeat! Pulling back and activating her Byakugan, focusing it harder than she ever had before, Hanabi found her sight changing, moving past skin, muscles, tenketsu, and fixating it on Konohamaru's insides. Ignoring the large amount of internal damage, she focused completely on the boy's heart.

* _Ba-thump_ *

A tiny, almost nonexistant twitch was all that her eyes registered, but it was there all the same.

"HE'S STILL ALIVE!"

 _ **-Now-**_

No one could truly register when Naruto appeared beside Konohamaru, one instant there was no one, and the next, he was there.

Lowering his hands onto his disciple, Naruto activated the diagnostic Jutsu, his face still blank as he assessed all of the internal damage, but a sigh of relief and a visible slumping of his shoulders showing how relieved he was that his student was still alive.

Turning towards the broken form of Kisame, Naruto spoke up.

"You get to live for today, but make no mistake. The next time we meet, _and we will meet_ , I will make you wish you were never born."

With that said, Naruto created three clones, with Kakashi joining the group clustered around Konohamaru. The three clones arrayed themselves around the group, before a beacon of orange light tinted the area for a second, followed by an empty area where the Konoha shinobi previously were.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Itachi turned towards the beaten and broken form of his partner, shaking his head in disgust. Sure, he was a shinobi, hell, he killed most of his family, but what Kisame did was still disgusting.

If endangering the children held any advantage, if he used them as hostages, if they tried to intervene in a fight, then he could've understood attacking them. Targetting them just to needlessly antagonize his enemy? That was disgraceful to the extreme.

Which is why he took no more care than grab Kisame by his tattered pants leg, dragging him across the clearing towards where Samehada had landed, not caring about the thick trail of blood being left behind him, before he placed his hand on the chakra-eating sword and vanished in a Shunshin, scouting out the closest safehouse/underground mednin to take care of Kisame. He'd even forgo the payment of anaesthethics and painkiller medication in any way, to save the Akatsuki some money, of course.

 _ **-Hokage's office, Konoha-**_

A flash of orange blinded everyone currently in the room, with Hiruzen squinting before opening his mouth.

His joke died on his lips as he saw his grandson's condition.

"Tsu-chan, emergency surgery! Konohamaru's been hit bad!"

Not even hesitating, Tsunade entered 'work-mode', sliding next to Naruto and going through a few handsigns before placing her hands over Konohamaru, her hands going up and down his body, cataloguing the found damage.

"He has extensive internal damage. His left lung has collapsed, his right kidney is failing, as is his liver, and his spleen. He has a tear in his large intestine, which is allowing various bacteria to flow into his bloodstream which is causing a fever, and possibly a blood infection, his ribs are broken and it's only god's will that none of them jabbed vitals, poking outwards instead."

"B-but you can save him, right?"

Seeing Naruto so desperate... It just wasn't right. If she wasn't determined to save the child that so reminded her of her brother Nawaki before (And she most definitely _was_ ), then she was now.

"I paged Shizune to prep a room for surgery as soon as I saw you arrived, it should all be ready by now."

Nodding, Naruto looked at his three clones who just nodded, one of them turning into a gurney, before the other two carefully lifted Konohamaru into it. Then, Naruto, Tsunade and Konohamaru vanished in a flash of orange.

 _ **-Konoha General-**_

People stared starstruck at the Uzumaki-Namikaze heir, seeing him suddenly show up via his father's jutsu. Their starstruck lookes faded into ones of horror as they saw the state of Sarutobi Konohamaru, the Third's honorable grandson and disciple of Konoha's uncrowned prince.

"Tsunade-sama! Naruto-kun!"

Shizune's voice got the attention of both, directing them towards the room she had prepped.

Tsunade, Shizune and the medical team were surprised when Naruto joined them in the room, wearing scrubs, a scrub cap, rubber gloves, clogs and a mask. Before anyone could say anything, Naruto spoke up.

"I have Yakushi Kabuto's medical knowledge in my head, the two of you are probably the only medics better than me at the moment. That, and the fact that my chakra is regenerative in nature means that I'm one of the best chances Konohamaru has."

With no one willing to dispute the blonde's claims, the medical staff could only engage in surgery, fighting to save the life of Sarutobi Konohamaru.

 _ **~Chapter End~**_

 **Holy shit,** _ **that**_ **came out of left field, didn't it?**

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